Surreal Snaps

Garage Sale Masterpieces: Newsweek offers a tiny but tantalizing sampling of 17 images from the 1,500-piece found-photo collection of St. Louis, Missouri, connoisseur John Foster. "When I look for images," says Foster, "I look for something that makes you almost uncomfortable in your own skin—something that makes you observe more intently. That's when I know I have something that's more than just a snapshot."

Of the ones not shown here, I especially like no. 5, and doesn't no. 10 look like a Cindy Sherman?

The online sample is just a taste, but fun nonetheless.

Mike
(Thanks to Daan Leijen)

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Comments

[John Camp]

Some remind me distinctly of Ralph Eugene Meatyard. John Foster has a good eye.

[John Frendreiss]

Excellent collection. I'd be happy to hang just about any of them on my wall. Mr. Foster had a great eye for compelling images. (I respectfully disagree about #10.)

[John Brewton]

Terrific! Thanks for posting this, Mike.

[juze]

See also the aptly-named http://blackandwtf.tumblr.com/

The quality seems to have gone down a bit recently, but older posts are well, really WTF.

[photogdave]

Many artists have tried very hard to create images as fascinating as these!

[Crabby Umbo]

Love These! Is that John Waters holding the woman up-side-down? Anyway, wonder how many great photos like this are taken today and deleted on the back of the digital camera?

[MJFerron]

A lot of us start out shooting landscapes and nature pics thinking this is the pinnacle of photography. Nothing wrong with that and great if you want to sell a calendar shot or wall hanger but none of that will ever amount to a memorable photo. Works like these are forever. Unusual and off kilter keeps the mind working.

[expiring_frog]

Wow, tantalizing indeed Mike. What a wonderful criterion for selecting photos :).

[Sam]

"Anyway, wonder how many great photos like this are taken today and deleted on the back of the digital camera?"

Photos are never really fully deleted. I can see people of 100 years in the future, digging out old memory cards and trying to put back the 1s and 0s to see a glimpse into the life of early 21st century Americana.

[Paul]

The power of an good still image will always as far as I am concerned beat hands down a movie. The enigmatic questions these images keep posing me, suck me into imaginary stories, dreams and in some cases nightmares. Can you imagine opening your front door to "The man in the rain"!! Reminds me of some kind of hit man or a guy home from war. I bet all of us could probably write a short story with our theories on each image.
Absolutely brilliant collection, made my day!!
I think this is John Foster´s Blog:
http://accidentalmysteries.blogspot.com/

[latent_image]

What I love about these examples is how they are so thoroughly "photographic," and, yes, I wish I was articulate enough to explain what I mean. To be imprecise, it's about how the facts(!) of time and space intersect with the medium of lens and film (or sensor).

In "The Mystery That Remains" post, I commented that "photography, at its best, is a somewhat different project than, for example, painting." I cannot imagine the other visual arts producing equally anonymous, amateur equivalents that are so full of richness and wonder as these snapshots.

[Eric Ford]

#10 is definitely my favorite, the kind of picture I wish I had taken. I didn't find it creepy, just gorgeous with the shiny hat, the trees, the raindrops...

#15 on the other hand was very creepy. People in animal masks and costumes always creep me out, but this especially because it's hard to place the person's age, he/she looks childlike yet the mask makes the face look adult.

[K. Praslowicz]

Looking for images like this is one of my favorite non-photography, yet still photography hobbies. Going through a box of 50+ year old prints, and trying to figure out what it is about the ones I end up buying that make them still interesting is a great mental exercise to help me curate my own work.

The two books of found photography by Robert Flynn Johnson are great buys as well if you are into this sort of thing.

[S. Neal]

Squareamerica.com has a large collection of vernacular photography. Is worth a look.

[John Frendreiss]

>> and doesn't no. 10 look like a Cindy Sherman?

Hmmm. I read this wrong at first. I said that I disagree, but I thought you were saying that #10 does not look like a Cindy Sherman.

Sometimes my eyes try to ingest too much too fast. This certainly isn't the first time I've done it, and it probably won't be the last.

So, to clarify:

>> and doesn't no. 10 look like a Cindy Sherman?

Yes, I think it does, very much so.

(I know there are more important things going on in the world, but I wanted to fess up and set the record straight.)