Vernacular Collage

"What is vernacular photography? . . . It could be understood as an oppositional photography - outside technical or artistic histories, . . . it could also be entirely conventionalized, a manifestation of visual banalities, or an image so enigmatic that its meaning or genesis is entirely obscured. It is mistakes & failures as much as it may not be. & how we understand the images may or may not be separate from their initial intents. Is this a category we are making up?"

The above quotation was taken from the blog article "Vernacular Photography" published on One Way Street. I was interested to read it initially because I have been enjoying the blog, Dull Tool Dim Bulb, so much recently.

Then I started to consider the vernacular in terms of collage. (And visa-versa.)

But I was going somewhere else with this. Here's another quote, this one from Robert Genn's Twice-Weekly Letter [to painters]: "Some artists have a sense of preciousness about every squiggle or splodge they make. They hang onto stuff with tenacity, even building archives to rival The Ark of the Covenant. I've always put this down to poor toilet training, but it may also have something to do with ego blow or the expectation of a place in the history of art."

Ouch. My toilet training was above reproach. I can't help myself. I'm a pack-rat trained as a librarian. And, come to think about it, I consider myself to be a vernacular collage artist!