Vintage | MONOVISIONS - Black & White Photography Magazine

Vintage: Christmas Shopping in the past

17 December 2018 0

“Christmas creep” refers to a merchandising phenomenon in which merchants and retailers exploit the commercialized status of Christmas by moving up the start of the holiday shopping season. The term was first used in the mid-1980s, and is associated with…

Vintage: Portraits of Mary Pickford – Silent Movie Star

15 December 2018 0

Mary Pickford (1892 – 1979) was known in her prime as “America’s Sweetheart” and the “girl with the curls”. She was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford…

Vintage: Christmas Trees in the past

13 December 2018 0

The relevance of ancient pre-Christian customs to the 16th-century German initiation of the Christmas tree custom is disputed. Resistance to the custom was often because of its supposed Lutheran origins. Other sources have offered a connection between the first documented…

Vintage: Mug-shots of Prisoners (1900s)

10 December 2018 0

“Some years ago I discovered a cache of glass negative mug shots taken in the early 20th century; each negative was inscribed with the man’s name and alleged crime. In order to research the life of each man pictured in…

Vintage: Portraits of American Ladies by Mathew Brady (1863)

8 December 2018 0

During the Civil War, Mathew Brady and his associates traveled throughout the eastern part of the country, capturing the effects of the War through photographs of people, towns, and battlefields. Additionally, Brady kept studios in Washington, DC and New York…

Vintage: Santa Claus in the past

6 December 2018 0

In 1821, the book A New-year’s present, to the little ones from five to twelve was published in New York. It contained Old Santeclaus with Much Delight, an anonymous poem describing Santeclaus on a reindeer sleigh, bringing presents to children.…

Vintage: Street Scenes of the Munster Region, Ireland (late XIX Century)

3 December 2018 0

Munster is one of the provinces of Ireland situated in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a “king of over-kings”. Following the Norman invasion of…

Vintage: The Balkans (1900s)

1 December 2018 0

From the album of a prussian revenue man who was stationed in Sofia (about 1900-1918). The photographs could have been taken in any other Balkan countries, because he undertook many journeys. via Wolfgang Wiggers

Vintage: Everyday Life in China (1921)

29 November 2018 0

These found photos from motohakone who bought at a flea market in Cannes, France in 1982. Photos were taken by a French speaking person when he made a trip to China (Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing) in October 1921. via motohakone

Vintage: Lumberjacks of North America (1900s)

25 November 2018 0

The term lumberjack is of Canadian derivation. The first attested use of the word comes from an 1831 letter to the Cobourg Star and General Advertiser in the following passage: “my misfortunes have been brought upon me chiefly by an…

Vintage: Russian Beauties in Traditional Costumes (19th Century)

22 November 2018 0

These photos were taken in the end of 19th century and now are kept in the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography. The women in the photos are wearing traditional costumes of different regions of Russia. And though you…

Vintage: Street Views of Sweden (1900s)

20 November 2018 0

Despite the slow rate of industrialisation into the 19th century, many important changes were taking place in the agrarian economy due to constant innovations and a rapid population growth. These innovations included government-sponsored programmes of enclosure, aggressive exploitation of agricultural…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Peking, China (19th Century)

18 November 2018 0

During the Second Opium War, Anglo-French forces captured the outskirts of the city, looting and burning the Old Summer Palace in 1860. Under the Convention of Peking ending that war, Western powers for the first time secured the right to…

Vintage: Historic B&W photos of Calcutta, India (1890s)

8 November 2018 0

Throughout the late 18th and 19th century, the city was a centre of the East India Company’s opium trade. By the 1850s, Calcutta had two areas: White Town, which was primarily British and centred on Chowringhee and Dalhousie Square; and…

Vintage: South of India (19th Century)

1 November 2018 0

The appointment in 1848 of Lord Dalhousie as Governor General of the East India Company set the stage for changes essential to a modern state. These included the consolidation and demarcation of sovereignty, the surveillance of the population, and the…

Vintage: Portraits of Clara Bow – Silent Movie Star

25 October 2018 0

Clara Bow (1905 – 1965) was an American actress who rose to stardom in silent film during the 1920s and successfully made the transition to “talkies” after 1927. Bow appeared in 46 silent films and 11 talkies.

Vintage: Portraits of Lucette Desmoulins by Biederer Brothers (1920s)

17 October 2018 0

Lucette Desmoulins was a French actress known for a few movies: Le bossu (1934), Un soir de réveillon (1933) and 77 rue Chalgrin (1931). She also appeared in muscials: Ma Femme (1927), Flossie (1929), Arsène Lupin, banquier (1930), Un soir…

Vintage: Portraits of Rudolph Valentino (1920s)

10 October 2018 0

Rudolph Valentino, byname of Rodolfo Alfonso Raffaello Pierre Filibert Guglielmi di Valentina d’Antonguolla, Alfonso also spelled Alfonzo, Raffaello also spelled Raffaelo, Pierre also spelled Pietro, and Filibert also spelled Filiberto (1895 – 1926), Italian-born American actor who was idolized as…

Vintage: Portraits of Abraham Lincoln (19th Century)

6 October 2018 0

Abraham Lincoln’s personal secretary John Nicolay believed that no photograph could capture Honest Abe’s essence: “There are many pictures of Lincoln,” he said, “[but] there is no portrait of him.” Over 130 photographs of Lincoln exist—here are a few you…

Vintage: Edinburgh, Scotland in Calotype (1840s)

2 October 2018 0

David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson were a pair of Scottish photographers working in the 1840s. They are best known for their wonderful portraits, but over the course of their sadly short partnership (Adamson died only five years in, aged…

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