Abstract
Vernacular photography has been a popular topic of research within the platforms of the history of photography and sociological studies and, in its print form, has increasingly seen its value rise in the marketplace. However, the family slideshow has been largely excluded from these various sites of attention. This thesis explores the family slideshow as a cultural product of mid-twentieth-century America. The slideshow is analysed in terms of how it was presented to and consumed by families in the 1950s and 1960s. The main section of this thesis provides an analysis of a case study carried out regarding the slideshow. The case study collected oral histories from four individuals on their experiences with producing and viewing slideshows in the mid-twentieth century. The analysis provides qualitative research on the consumption, production and viewing of the slideshow as a popular medium for family snapshots.
Highlights
Millions of family snapshots exist in the form of slides.1 The slideshow reached its peak in popularity in the United States as a shift in values, motivated by a period of prosperity following World War II, placed the family and domestic life at the center in the mid-twentieth century
Studies of vernacular photography have largely taken amateur snapshots and the family albums often containing them as subjects, in both historical and sociological contexts
While the family slideshow mostly occurred throughout the latter half of the twentieth century, this paper focuses on the 1950s and 1960s in order to provide parameters for my research
Summary
Millions of family snapshots exist in the form of slides. The slideshow reached its peak in popularity in the United States as a shift in values, motivated by a period of prosperity following World War II, placed the family and domestic life at the center in the mid-twentieth century. To provide readers with a social context, this essay will examine the United States in the mid-twentieth century, looking at the family, leisure activities, and consumerism, as these were common and interconnected snapshot subjects The slideshow, as it appeared in advertisements and photography manuals, will be discussed, determining how the slideshow was presented to consumers, and how companies were educating consumers on what and how to photograph. While lantern slides and autochromes offered viewers a slideshow experience, they were not inexpensive, and it took a skilled amateur to produce them It was not until a few years after the 1935 introduction of Kodak’s colour positive film, Kodachrome, invented by Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky, Jr., that the slideshow became a medium consumed by the masses. Eastman Kodak Company, Kodak at the New York World’s Fair (Rochester, NY: Eastman Kodak Company, 1940), 2
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