[5] Examples in Szarkowski's book and the exhibition it was based on[6] included ordinary snapshots, magazine photos, studio portraiture, and specialized documentary work by anonymous professionals.
The current wave of interest began in 2000, with a "seminal"[7] essay, "Vernacular Photographies", by the art historian and curator Geoffrey Batchen.
To these examples could be added a multitude of equally neglected indigenous genres and practices, from gilt Indian albumen prints, to American painted and framed tintypes, to Mexican fotoescultura, to Nigerian ibeji images.
"[12] Similarly, the Ackland Art Museum (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) defines vernacular photographs as "those that are made by individuals, typically presumed to be non-artists, for a wide variety of reasons, including snapshots of everyday subjects taken for personal pleasure.
"[14] The Art Institute of Chicago agrees, referring to vernacular photography as "those countless ordinary and utilitarian pictures made for souvenir postcards, government archives, police case files, pin-up posters, networking Web sites, and the pages of magazines, newspapers, or family albums.
[17] At least in critical and curatorial use,[18] the term largely supersedes the earlier "found photography," which was most concerned with the eye of the finder.