Oldal 487 [487]
The Postcard: A Visual and Textual Form of Communication
only to reflect popular culture, but also to shape it. Through picture postcards
it is possible to discern the multiplicity of the often-contradictory attitudes,
beliefs, and values swirling through popular culture of the time” (Rowley 2013:
4) and study the social role of postcards as a visual, open, short message. For
Bruce McCraw postcards are “storytellers”, and “were the only unexpensive
and fast way for the tourist and the local resident to keep touch with family
and friends, [and were ensured by] rapid mail travel, well suited to the simple
format of the postcard” (McCraw 1998: xiv). He underlines some physical
features/characteristics of postcards as a paper product and its use, which are
interesting for deltiologists, postcard collectors. Holzheid deals with the essen¬
tial characteristics, functions and uses of the postcard (Holzheid 2011: 66-68).
Different from Holzheid’s thesis this chapter considers its role as an intermedi¬
ary between identities, self-expression, otherness and images. The objectives
and tasks of the article are limited to the individual choice of images or other¬
ness, based on and connected to the dynamics of the identity. The postcard is
understood as a mediator between the well-known or less known otherness
and the identities of the parties. It is not the main object of our chapter but
a agreeable tool with which to study it. In this sense, it simultaneously reflects
the dynamics of identities and other unknown reality both as a purpose and
content of the message that is not only an epistolary tool, but a visual docu¬
ment as well (Fig. 1).’
The visualization of the well-known and the familiar, of the otherness and
the unknown, or the less known, which is on the front side of the postcard,
becomes the logical basis for the textual message on the back side, thus blend¬
ing private correspondence, photography, and art into one. The proportion
between the communicative function of the postcard and the individual ori¬
entation of the private message is a variable and depends on both the time the
message is sent and the identity of the authors.
The postcards and photographs in the role of mediators between the known,
the familiar, and the otherness, visualize the link between the other reality and
the individual attitude. The objectives and tasks of the chapter are limited to
this thesis. The postcard is understood as a mediator between the “world out¬
side”, the otherness and the dynamics of identities. Or, as a general definition’
of the postcard’s individual combination “face + back of the card”: “Photo¬
graphs are beautiful, useful and incite different emotions. Our visual memory
2
Postcard no. 79, August 4, 1972; private archive of postcards 1950-1990, authors property.
> For my thesis I need a definition that stresses the emotional and individual “back-side” of a visual
image. The postcards are photographs, produced in great number. I don't need a definition like this:
a printed card with space on one side for an address and a postage stamp, used for sending a short message
through the mail.
485