As part of the Parsons Department of Photography at The New School Lecture Series, writer and critic Luc Sante gave a talk at Aperture Gallery last November on his new book, Folk Photography: The American Real-Photo Postcard, 1905–1930, which was recently excerpted in Aperture magazine, Issue 196. The full version of this talk is now available to view on our multimedia page divided in two parts.

This clip below is an excerpt from the event where Luc Sante explains how he started collecting postcards thirty years ago. He then reads the introduction to his book going through the development of photo postcards with the dissemination of pocket cameras in the first half of the 20th century and the particular style of this non-academic American vernacular art.

To watch the full version, click on these links below:

Part 1, Part 2

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Aperture and the Parsons Department of Photography at The New School present an artist’s talk with writer and critic Luc Sante. Sante will present a reading and images from his upcoming book Folk Photography: The American Real-Photo Postcard, 1905–1930, which was recently excerpted in Aperture magazine, Issue 195. Sante wants to convey something about the transmission of ideas, about the inventiveness and self-reliance required by artists working in relative isolation, about the constraints and liberties of artists who were considered artisans or even service professionals, about the uncertainty as to whether their decisions were artistic choices rather than accidental or expedient, about the incursion of modern technology into lives far from any main stream.

Luc Sante: Parsons Lecture Series
Tuesday, November 17, 7:00 pm

FREE

Aperture Gallery
547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, New York
(212) 505-5555

For the first time ever, the cover of Aperture features a drawing, not a photograph, as the cover image. In issue #196, these vibrant abstract works from William Eggleston are published for the first time and showcase a rarely seen part of the artist’s career. Also featured is a selection of William Klein’s work from 1956, soon-to-be-published in Rome (Aperture, October 2009), an examination of the role of monuments in photography by Mark Alice Durant, a review of ICP’s Year of Fashion from Holly Brubach, and Luc Sante‘s investigation into the early-twentieth-century photographic postcard. Philip Lopate also examines Sally Gall‘s new images of insects, Rob Hornstra documents less-than-fortunate Russians, photographer Gerald Slota and playwright Neil LaBute collaborate to create some very chilling scenarios, Debbie Fleming Caffery documents her native Louisiana, and more.

Pick up your copy at newsstands nationwide, buy the issue here, or click here to subscribe to Aperture.

Reader challenge: What exact medium does William Eggleston use to make these drawings?