Photo Surprise and indoor snapshots

Title: Photo Surprise and indoor snapshots
Photographer: Photo Jack
Date Created: ca.1953
Date: 1950/1960
Collection: Modern Endangered Archives Program
The Photo Surprise Archive of Photo Jack

Description: This digital contact sheet reflects a half a roll of photographs taken by Studio Photo Jack (1945-1997) in Tripoli, Lebanon. The photographers worked on reportage photography, a form of commercial photography practiced outside the Studio and covering various social, cultural and religious occasions. Their main photography style was called “Photo Surprise", which is a practice that was common in the Middle East between the 1940s and 1960s. They walked the public square of Tal in Tripoli photographing pedestrians - some posing and others caught candidly in their stride. They then invited their subjects to return to the studio to purchase and collect their photographs. A film roll with intimate snapshots of a family seen in sequence gives the impression of constant movement around the Tal. Images of officials and public figures are intercepted by images of baptisms, funerals, birthdays, and parties; adding a strange familiarity to the Tal and the faces of the people walking around.

Genre: black-and-white photographs
Subject Geographic: Lebanon
Tripoli (Lebanon)
Resource type: still image
Subjects: attitudes and poses
women's fashion
candid photography
snapshot
restaurant table
veil
public spaces
infancy
cafe
photography--business methods
bar
fashion--history--20th century
photo surprise
public visibility
modern fashion
self-presentation
street photography
children's fashion
urban anthropology