The term snapshot is an interesting one. In reality all snapshots are photographs, but not all photographs are snapshots. A snapshot is almost an unexpected photograph, one taken quickly without thinking about it too much, and often in a surreptitious manner – an abrupt artifact. Snapshots are ubiquitous with small, pocket-cameras, like the Ricoh GR series, or even mobile phone cameras (although it just isn’t the same). Once a camera is set up using a tripod, or the camera itself is a behemoth dSLR, the whole atmosphere of taking a photograph changes. Often the thing that is to be photographed has already happened, the moment passed. Snapshots involving people also change as they become more self-aware. It’s hard to get a candid shot. Paul Strand [1] suggested that a snapshot is “when it becomes necessary to stop movement“.

For the first decades of the photograph, the snapshot did not really exist, for a number of reasons, both technological and sociological. From the 1840s to the turn of the century, the more formal portrait photograph was the mainstay. Cameras were slow, and although the “nuclear” family was considered a well developed entity, casual family life was not really considered a good basis for photographic subject matter. As Steven Halpern [2] suggests the portrait was a means for the masses to achieve a cultural identity. In 1878 Charles Haper Bennett discovered how to sensitize dry gelatin plates, a process which allowed exposures of 1/20th of a second or less. It was now possible to stop movements. The last two decades of the 19th century followed a series of innovations such as handheld cameras, roll film and the astigmat lens, culminating in the Kodak Brownie, which made photography available to everyone. Family life had also changed, and while the portrait had focused on the individual, the snapshot characterized the interaction of the whole family, in a much more laid-back manner.

Snapshots are interesting in scenes where there is movement, or change, a visual record of something that won’t happen the same way again. Taking pictures in a downtown core is a great example. Stand at a cross-walk and watch the movement of people. A snapshot will freeze the movement of people, but it is by no means an exact art. People can be partially in focus, partially blurred, or obscured. In that respect a snapshot means short exposures, using a fast shutter speed, and in the case of film, a high ISO film. Long exposures are by no means snapshots. Any photograph that stops movement could therefore be considered a snapshot.

[1] Paul Strand, The Snapshot, Aperture, 19(1), p.49 (1974)
[2] Steven Halpern, The Snapshot, Aperture, 19(1), p.65 (1974)