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Biography: 19th Century Danish Daguerreotypist Mads Alstrup

21 April 2018 0

Mads Alstrup (1808-1876) was the first Danish portrait photographer with his own studio. In the summer of 1842, he moved to Copenhagen and set up a daguerreotype studio behind the Hercules Pavilion in the Rosenborg Gardens. In this popular area of the city, he had no difficulty in finding clients interested in having their portraits taken. From 1843 to 1848,…

Vintage: Roskilde in Denmark (1900s and 1910s)

20 April 2018 0

Roskilde has a long history, dating from the pre-Christian Viking Age. Its UNESCO-listed Gothic cathedral, now housing 39 tombs of the Danish monarchs, was completed in 1275, becoming a focus of religious influence until the Reformation. With the development of the rail network in the 19th century, Roskilde became an important hub for traffic with Copenhagen, and by the end…

Seydou Keïta: Bamako Portraits

19 April 2018 0

In the 1950s and 60s, a colourful collection of inhabitants of Bamako, capital of Mali, posed for the camera belonging to Seydou Keïta (1921-2001, Mali). People came to Keïta’s studio to have their picture taken in the best and most beautiful way: wearing extravagant dresses made of wonderful textiles with splendid forms of head dress, or in a modern western…

Vintage: Everyday Life of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the 1880s

18 April 2018 0

Sri Lanka was known from the beginning of British colonial rule until 1972 as Ceylon. At first the area it covered did not include the Kingdom of Kandy, which was a protectorate from 1815, but from 1817 to 1948 the British possessions included the whole island of Ceylon, now the nation of Sri Lanka. via Patrick Montgomery

Tereza Zelenkova: The Essential Solitude

17 April 2018 0

‘The Essential Solitude’ is Czech photographer Tereza Zelenkova’s first exhibition at the Ravestijn Gallery. In her preferred black and white images Zelenkova presents a room and its curious inhabitant, evoking the n de siècle movements of symbolism and decadence, to which the photographer pays homage, with references to the literature of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and JK Huysmans. Together, the still lives,…

Vintage: Street Scenes of São Paulo, Brazil (1862 -1887)

16 April 2018 0

After Brazil became independent from Portugal in 1822, as declared by Emperor Pedro I where the Monument of Ipiranga is located, he named São Paulo as an Imperial City. In 1827, a law school was founded at the Convent of São Francisco, these days a part of the University of São Paulo. The influx of students and teachers gave a…

Sebastião Salgado: Exodus

15 April 2018 0

It has been almost a generation since Sebastião Salgado first published Exodus but the story it tells, of fraught human movement around the globe, has changed little in 16 years. The push and pull factors may shift, the nexus of conflict relocates from Rwanda to Syria, but the people who leave their homes tell the same tale: deprivation, hardship, and…

Biography: 19th Century Portrait photographer David Wilkie Wynfield

14 April 2018 0

David Wilkie Wynfield (1837–1887) was a British painter and photographer. Wynfield was distantly related to the Scottish artist David Wilkie, after whom he was named. Born in India, he was originally intended by his family for the priesthood, but instead chose art as a profession. He studied at Leigh’s art school in the 1850s and his first painting was accepted…

Vintage: Boston Showgirls in the 1940s

13 April 2018 0

A showgirl is a female dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show intended to showcase the performer’s physical attributes, typically by way of revealing clothing or even toplessness or nudity. Showgirls are often associated with Latin music and dance, particularly samba. via Boston Public Library

Vintage: Street Shots of Oslo by Carl Størmer (1890s)

12 April 2018 0

Carl Størmer (1874-1957) is one of Norway’s pioneer photographers. He is known as an astronomer and mathematician. In history books Størmer is referred to as “The Northern Lights photographer”: he will go down in history as the first person to construct a camera that could capture the Northern Lights. From 1893 to 1897 he took everyday pictures of people.

Vintage: Everyday Life of People during Edwardian Era

11 April 2018 0

The upper-classes embraced leisure sports, which resulted in rapid developments in fashion, as more mobile and flexible clothing styles were needed. During the Edwardian era, women wore a very tight corset, or bodice, and dressed in long skirts. The Edwardian era was the last time women wore corsets in everyday life. According to Arthur Marwick, the most striking change of…

Serge Ramelli: New York

10 April 2018 0

Black-and-white urban photography has a unique effect: It can lend a historical feel or bring out perspectives and surfaces in a special way. Serge Ramelli’s New York photos do both—and much more. With his film director’s eye, he searches out locations using parameters that evoke a specific atmosphere and build tension. The New York skyline or typical New York street…

Vintage: Everyday Life of Norwegians (late 19th Century)

9 April 2018 0

In 1886 20-year-old Ellisif R. Müller (1866-1949) married her cousin, regional doctor Andreas Wessel. The marriage led her to Kirkenes, where they lived out their lives. It was there, in her new home, that she made her debut as a photographer. In Finnmark Wessel encountered a reality which stood in stark contrast to that of her protected bourgeois youth. She…

Vintage: The Earliest Known Photographs of White House (1846)

8 April 2018 0

A Welsh immigrant named John Plumbe, Jr., who was one of the country’s first prominent professional photographers, took the daguerreotype in January 1846. The White House as it stands today is a very different building than when it was first constructed. While its essential features—the classically inspired columns, large, airy windows, and rooftop railings—have stayed the same, it has gone…

Biography: 19th Century Scottish photographer James Valentine

7 April 2018 0

James Valentine (1815 – 1879) was a Scottish photographer. Valentine’s of Dundee produced Scottish topographical views from the 1860s. The business Valentine & Sons Ltd was founded in Dundee in 1851 by James Valentine. He added portrait photography to the activities of his established Dundee business, which had been based up to 1851 on the engraving, printing and supply of…

Harf Zimmermann: Hufelandstraße: 1055 Berlin

6 April 2018 0

Hufelandstrasse, 1055 Berlin is Harf Zimmermann’s 1986–87 portrait of the people and places of Hufelandstrasse, a bustling neighborhood street in the heart of communist East Germany. Inspired by Bruce Davidson’s East 100th Street (1970), his radical depiction of life on a block in East Harlem, Zimmermann set about documenting Hufelandstrasse where he also lived at the time. For over a…

Leigh Griffiths: Meat

5 April 2018 0

Throughout China meat is an important part of life. Poultry and pork are staple proteins, so in the local marketplaces, live and freshly-killed animals make up most of what’s on offer. As a westerner who grew up only ever seeing meat already cut into unidentifiable pieces behind glass or on my plate, walking through a Chinese wet market is a…

Vintage: Glass Plate Negatives of Carole Lombard (1930s)

4 April 2018 0

Carole Lombard (1908 – 1942) was born into a wealthy family in Fort Wayne, Indiana, but was raised in Los Angeles by her single mother. At 12, she was recruited by the film director Allan Dwan and made her screen debut in A Perfect Crime (1921). Eager to become an actress, she signed a contract with the Fox Film Corporation…

Michael Kenna: Holga

3 April 2018 0

Michael Kenna is internationally renowned for producing evocative black-and-white images of nature and the urban environment. Often photographing at night or in the early morning hours, the majority of his photographs involve long time exposures with the camera on a tripod. However, some of Kenna’s more quirky, whimsical, and unpredictable images have been photographed with inexpensive, hand-held, plastic Holga cameras.…