Snapshots
From the foreward:
This is a compilation of images taken from from eBay listings – more specifically, from what are called “Vintage Photo Lots” or, less eloquently, “Snapshot Lots”. These are listings of groups of photographs which are sold together, usually for very little money, maybe $10 or $25 a batch. [...] These images, then, capture the transformation of a photograph from a memory, something important to someone, somewhere, for reasons ultimately only accessible to them, back into a simple commodity, with no particular value beyond that inscribed by the figure attached to it. These are simple, artless commercial images, but for there is a sad poetry in their nature. Each one gives us a glimpse of lives, of histories different from our own, histories which for one reason or another have been given up by their caretakers.
The 245 images assembled here is a fraction of a fraction of the potential pool; they were compiled over the course of a few hours on May 29th, 2021, exclusively from active listings. When looking at them, remember that every day more are being uploaded, all alike in their irreducible difference.