INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NON-PROFESSIONAL P~TOGRAPtIY AS VISUAL COMMUNICATION Richard Chalfen In this paper I will examine different aspects of the home-mode of visual communication. In the first part I will briefly outline this area of study in broad terms and give several examples of home-mode imagery. I will then offer one descriptive and analytic approach to the isolation and explica- tion of hame-mode visual communication. The first question that we might begin to explore concerns the subject matter of this mode of visual communication. lVhat kinds of visual communication are being included and excluded? What kinds of images are being considered? Are we only examining pictures, or are we also concerned about habits of image-making and image-viewing? It is frequently said that we swim in worlds of photographic images--images that are so common, so much a part of our accepted material culture that we are hard pressed to consciously acknowledge our use of, and interaction with, so many pictures. Studies in the home-mode concentrate on man's intimate use of photographic imagery--pictures that are made as part of everyday life. It is certainly true that pl~otograph making, carrying, sharing, and showing are extremely cownon and popular activities. The Wolfman report indicates that 4.75 billion photographs were taken by amateurs and photo-hobb:ists i n 1972. (Admittedly not all of these photographs are to be included in the hme-mode enterprise, but a suffi- ciently high percentage certainly do, and hence give us some indication of tile immense popularity of his activity.) The number of people that will write a book in the course of a lifetime is certainly comparatively small when compared t o the number of people who will organize a book of home-mode images. Additionally, it is unusual to find many people who do not carry some form of photographic image with them as part of their personal "baggageu--this is almost as common as wearing clothes. Home- movies, family album snapshots, wallet photographs, wedding albums, and photographic portraits displayed on housel~old walls, on television sets, on bureaus and bookshelves: this list is not meant to be exhaustive but rather suggestive of what might emerge as sub-genres of the home- mode. It is this kind of material and its implicitly realized process of communication t h a t I want t o c a l l the "home-mode of visual communication." Thus a second question that must be discussed involves the distinguishing characteristics of the home-mode. Let us first try to eliminate some things. First of all it is important to understand that we are not talking about a mode of communication that is determined only technically. That is, home-mode imagery can be produced by Nikons as well as by Instanratics and Polaroid cameras, and by Bolexes as well as Kodak Brownie Super-8 cameras.