Five Interesting Vintage Vernacular Photos Found in an Antique Store

These photographs are fascinating because they are so ordinary

Vernacular photographs are ordinary — and often spontaneous — pictures made by amateur photographers for personal, social, or useful purposes, not intended to be fine art. They could be family snapshots, travel pictures, or sometimes work-related images.

For me, digging through boxes of other people’s photos can be fascinating and fun, especially when you find one that jumps out at you because of some special quality. . . maybe it’s the color, or the fashions, or a cool car in the photo, or a special location from their vacation, or something mysterious that circles like a puzzle in your mind.

I love the coloration of this old snapshot of two guys sitting on a floral print sofa. The guy’s shirt seems to match the sofa’s fabric. Probably early 1970s. What do you imagine the story to be behind this photo?

At first, I thought these were portraits of two different young ladies, but after examining the pictures, I now believe it’s two pictures of the same girl taken a few years apart.

This fascinating cabinet card portrait of a little girl dressed — I suppose — as a Christmas angel, was made by photographer Edwin Russell Winans (July 20, 1861 – March 6, 1917) at his studio in the Ford Block in Oneonta, probably around 1900.

In this final snapshot, we go back to the late ’60s or early ’70s where we see a large family positioned behind a white car. I can’t quite make out the state name on the license plates nor the model name that’s set above the front grill. And since so many of the ladies have curlers in their hair, I assume it was an impromptu photograph.