Vintage: Daguerreotype Portraits of People born in the late 18th Century (1700s)
Photo collection of mid XIX century Victorian Era Daguerreotype Portraits of People born in the late 18th century (1700s). From the collection of Jesse Cress at flickr
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Helen Levitt: Manhattan Transit
Helen Levitt’s pictures haunt like an intimate ghost – ever present, never forceful, curious, and receptive. In 1938 Levitt accompanied Walker Evans on a number of trips when he photographed passengers on the New York subway and soon she was taking her own shots. More empathetic and informal with a camera, Levittʼs finest photographs came from being present to the…
Vintage: Helsinki in the late 19th Century
During the 19th century, Helsinki became the economic and cultural center of Finland; as elsewhere, technological advancements such as railroads and industrialization were key factors behind the city’s growth. The first Helsinki railway station opened in 1862 with service to Hämeenlinna. Beginning from the late 19th century, the Finnish language became more and more dominant in the city, since the…
Biography: 19th Century Motion photographer Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge (1830 – 1904) was an English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion, and early work in motion-picture projection. He adopted the first name Eadweard as the original Anglo-Saxon form of Edward, and the surname Muybridge believing it to be similarly archaic. Muybridge emigrated to the United States at the age of 20, arriving…
Vintage: New York City before the Indoor Toilets
If you’ve ever bemoaned the fact that you share a bathroom with several family members or housemates, you’re not alone. Most New Yorkers live in apartments and most units have just a single bathroom. A hundred and fifty years ago, however, the situation was much worse. At the time, New Yorkers had just a few choices when it came to…
Biography: 19th Century African-American daguerreotypist Augustus Washington
Augustus Washington (1820 – 1875) was an African-American photographer and daguerreotypist, who later in his career emigrated to Liberia. Washington grew up in the Americas of the 1820s, a time when African Americans were denied even the most basic rights. Against all convention, all he wanted to do was study. He struggled to get admission into various educational institutions across…
Vintage: Portrait Postcards of the German Actresses (1910s-1920s)
The German film industry (during Weimar Republic), which was protected during the war by the ban on foreign films import, became exposed at the end of the war to the international film industry while having to face an embargo, this time on its own films. Many countries banned the import of German films and audiences themselves were resisting anything that…
Sory Sanle: Volta Photo 1965–85
Ibrahima Sory Sanle (b. 1943) started his photographic career in Bobo-Dioulasso in 1960, the year his country (now Burkina Faso) gained independence from France. Sanle opened his Volta Photo portrait studio in 1965 and, working with his Rolleiflex twin lens medium format camera, Volta Photo was soon recognised as the finest studio in the city. Voltaic photography’s unsung golden age…
Robin Yong: Flowers of Ethiopia
The Surma tribe of the Omo Valley, Ethiopia…a place where mankind probably began. The children and teens appear innocent and beautiful, with their ornate body paint work and exotic head decorations made of flowers. The place appears peaceful and untouched, but in reality, life here is harsh with the tribespeople at frequent wars with neighbouring tribes over cattle grazing rights.…
Biography: 19th Century Australian photographer Charles Kerry
Charles Kerry (1857 – 1928) began working in the Sydney photo studio of A.H. Lamartiniere in 1875. When Lamartiniere fled from creditors a few years later, Kerry took charge of the company, paying debts and turning around the business. Initially Kerry specialised in portraits but branched into photographing Sydney scenery and society. He was also active in the postcard business.…
Xavier Miserachs: Photobolsillo
Of the series that make up this book, the most widely recognised is Barcelona, blanc i negre [Barcelona, black and white]. It depicts Barcelona during the sixties children at play, fruit sellers in El Born, flower vendors, families… Costa Brava Show portrays beaches, people and the summer atmosphere in Ibiza, Tossa de Mar, Cadaque s and Calonge. In contrast, the…
Jake Verzosa: The Last Tattooed Women of Kallinga
The Last Tattooed Women of Kalinga presents a series of portraits by Jake Verzosa who laments and celebrates a dying tradition of tattooing in villages throughout the Cordillera mountains in the northern Philippines. For nearly a thousand years the Kalinga women have proudly worn these lace-like patterns or batok on their skin as symbols of beauty, wealth, stature and fortitude.…
Vintage: Women Greeting New Year in Swimsuits (1930s)
The ’20s suit which sometimes sported cutout sections in the midriff panel disappeared as it evolved into a two piece garment. By this era most of us would recognize the late 1930s swimsuits as one that bears some relationship to swimwear of today.
Vintage: Girls Celebrating the New Year’s Eve (1930s)
In the Gregorian calendar, New Year’s Eve (also known as Old Year’s Day or Saint Sylvester’s Day in many countries), the last day of the year, is on December 31 which is the seventh day of the Christmas season. In many countries, New Year’s Eve is celebrated at evening social gatherings, where many people dance, eat, drink alcoholic beverages, and…
Ruth Kaplan: Bathers
Bathers explores the social theatre of communal bathing, a ritual that is both private and public. Ruth Kaplan’s journey began in the nudist hot springs of California in 1991. By participating in the baths, Kaplan gradually became accepted and was able to make photographs of her fellow bathers, occupying the dual role of empathetic voyeur and participant. From California she…
Vintage: Models in Victorian Era (19th Century)
Toward the end of the era (about the 1890s) women’s fashions became simpler and less extravagant and bustles fell out of fashion. The new, looser dresses gave way to a more flowing look. Corsets were still worn, but became slightly longer to provide the slimmer shape that was coming into fashion.
Biography: 19th Century Portrait photographer Lina Jonn
Lina Jonn, birth name Carolina Johnsson, (1861–1896) was an early Swedish photographer. Jonn appears to have learnt photography in Paris but her first professional work was in the Swedish city of Helsingborg where she joined the Finnish photographer Per Alexis Brandt who ran a studio there. In 1891, she opened her own studio in Lund which soon attracted many influential…
Vintage: Death Valley Road Trip in 1926
The Death Valley Automobile Trip photograph album containing 76 prints appears to be the record of a sightseeing trip made from Los Angeles to Death Valley in 1926. A written record–in the form of diary entries–is also included and consists of a series of detailed captions describing the landscape, landmarks, and individuals encountered in Death Valley. Neither the diarist nor…
Robert Frank: Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947–2017
Robert Frank (b. 1924, Zurich) is considered the inventor of street photography. With his method of sequencing and composing pictures in intuitive series beyond the traditional photographic essay, he has developed new forms of expression within the medium of photography. Despite Frank’s significant influence on photographers of his own and subsequent generations, there are only few exhibitions of his work.…
Biography: 19th Century Portrait photographer Pietro Marubi
Pietro Marubi (1834 – 1903) was an Italian painter and photographer who, as a supporter of Garibaldi, had emigrated from Piacenza, Italy, to Shkodra for political reasons around the year 1850. There, he founded a photo business, Foto Marubi, with cameras he had brought with him, using the wet plate collodion process, the standard method of photography across Europe. The…
