About the Family Snaps Category

These photographs have all been taken by friends or family members themselves, rather than a photographer, and they make a very charming set of images altogether.

In the 50s and 60s camera ownership was still limited before mass produced cameras arrived, including the Polaroid camera, which was very popular from the late 1950s onwards. Many of the images in this collection were taken on holiday, showing backgrounds of beaches and countryside.

If you have any memories of any places or photographs shown, please send them to us and contribute to our memory book to help us identify the photographs.

These photographs are a great contrast to the well constructed studio photographs in Portraits of the 1950s and 60s – these images are charming because of their wonky framing and use too much or too little distance. These images also really capture a sense of emotion compared to the studio portraits.

See all the images in the Family Snaps category here.