Sue Ford (1963)
Titled Carol
Sue Ford (1963)
Titled Sue Pike
From the NSW Art Gallery exhibition on
Australian vernacular photography
The term vernacular as defined by the free dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vernacular is as follows:
1. The standard native language of a country or locality.
2.
a. The everyday language spoken by a people as distinguished from the literary language. See Synonyms at dialect.
b. A variety of such everyday language specific to a social group or region: the vernaculars of New York City.
3. The idiom of a particular trade or profession: in the legal vernacular.
4. An idiomatic word, phrase, or expression.
5. The common, nonscientific name of a plant or animal.
As Sue Ford has been defined as an artist http://www.sueford.com.au/HOME.html, I find it hard to agree that these or any images in the NSW Art Gallery exhibition on Australian Vernacular Photography can truly be defined as such. As Sue Ford cannot be defined as just an ordinary Australian when it comes to her ability to communicate through photography. With reference to above, at best Sue Ford's images can be defined by Australian photographer's vernacular, as her skill to express, imply and even manipulate (if desired) through images are far stronger then the ordinary Australian.
These images may capture the lives of ordinary Australian's however they are not captured in a way that ordinary Australian's would capture them. Vernacular photographs are the images that sit on the hard drives and in the albums of all Australian's. Taken with little consideration to composition, exposure and dynamic range.
The inability to define these images as vernacular however does not take away from their subject matter, particularly considering the contrast in the women in these images. Sue Ford has captured two very different aspects of Australian life. From the care free women enjoying the Australian weather, to the more complex life of the women doing her hair at home in the style at the time, who Sue Ford suggested that her pose depicted the choices women need to make between 'marriage and children’ or mini-skirts and the Pill, as her old school friends go in different directions. http://www.aartgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/82.1989/ The images both broadly comment on the lives of Australian women at the time.
