Robert Tal Gallery Photographs

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Robert Tat Gallery presents a selection of photographs by unknown photographers. The prints on view cover the range of vernacular photography, which has become quite popular in recent years and is now a widely accepted genre of art photography.
The exhibition concentrates on the vernacular photograph as “accidental art.” Connoisseurship plays an important role. Gallery director Robert Tat explains “I screen these images with the same criteria I use when evaluating a fine art photograph: artistic appeal, engaging or emotional subject matter, and print quality. I’m looking for photographs that were made without the intention of being art, yet posses an artistic quality. I often search through over 1000 photographs to find that one ‘gem in the rough’ that meets my standards to qualify as a Found Image.”
The term "vernacular" literally means "of the commonplace." Vernacular photography refers to personal snapshots and albums, historical images, class portraits, photo-booth images, scientific photographs, commercial photographs, and other images not made as art. Many collectors find vernacular photographs interesting, both for subject matter and for the occasional image that has an aesthetic appeal, albeit unintentional. Hence the label “accidental art.”
This growing interest in collecting vernacular photographs has led to a new appreciation of these works as a legitimate art form. During the last decade several major fine arts museums have mounted exhibitions of vernacular prints or snapshots, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Hundreds of books have been published featuring vernacular images, and most major private and public photography collections now include vernacular works.
The Robert Tat Gallery has long been a respected source for vernacular photographs, and the Gallery exhibition features a number of Found Images from Robert Tat’s personal collection. Found photos are generally acquired at flea markets, antique stores, estate sales, or literally just "found". Robert Flynn Johnson, a major collector of vernacular photography, has noted that the currency of the found image is not money, but time.
Artistic interest in the Found Image can be traced to Marcel Duchamp and subsequent Dadaists and conceptual artists who popularized the concept of "readymades" and common objects as art. Much of the appeal of these photos is the mystery regarding the original photographer or the subject matter and can also involve a sort of voyeuristic interest, as if one were obtaining access to a private world.

- San Francisco historical material.
Robert Tat has a special interest in 20th century European and American Modernism. This includes classic modernism (photographs made between the two World Wars), and extends to a broader range of work influenced by the modernist school. It also encompasses 19th century photographs that anticipate modernism, vernacular and other anonymous works with a modernist sensibility, and contemporary works.

ROBERT TAT GALLERY is located at 49 Geary Street, Suite 211 in San Francisco's Union Square area. The Gallery is open Tuesday - Saturday 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM. For further information, please call 415-781-1122. We also frequently exhibit at art fairs.

We are always looking for fine photographs to purchase or consign. If you have photographs you would like to sell, please contact us.

If you are looking for a particular photographic image, works by a specific photographer or a certain style of photograph, please contact us with your request. If we don't have it in inventory we'll be pleased to search for you. We have resources for photographic material all over the world.

What is a Salon photograph?
Numerous camera clubs around the world sponsor regular exhibitions, called salons, where members of other clubs compete to show work. The salons during the first half of the 20th century were particularly rich, featuring the work of many artists who later became famous. We take a special interest in the the works of lesser known salon photographers, often serious amateurs or commercial professionals doing their own work on the side. Their photographs are frequently beautifully composed and crafted, with an aesthetic and print quality rivaling that of the celebrated artists of the day. Many collectors appreciate salon work for these reasons -- and because it is more reasonably priced than works by better known artists. Salon prints may bear exhibition labels or stamps on the reverse of the photograph's mount, indicating awards or other participation in various salons.

What is a Vernacular photograph?
The term "vernacular" literally means "of the commonplace." In photography collecting, it refers to photographs which were made without artistic intent. This includes commercial photographs, personal snapshots and albums, historical images, scientific photographs, etc. Many collectors find vernacular images interesting, both for subject matter and for the occasional image that has an aesthetic appeal, albeit unintentional.

What is a Found Image?
Our Found Images are specially selected snapshots screened with the same criteria as a fine art photograph: artistic appeal, engaging or emotional subject matter, and print quality. We search through about 1000 pieces to find one "gem in the rough" that meets our standards. There is growing interest in collecting snapshots and a new appreciation of them as art, with several fine arts museums mounting exhibitions during the past few years. Found Images from Robert Tat's collection were exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 1998 as part of their "Snapshots: The Photography of Everyday Life" show.