FLASHBAK

These photos by Eliot Elisofon take us backstage of a Frances Mclaughlin-Gill fashion shoot for Glamour magazine in January 1952. At the time the 33 year old Mclaughlin-Gill was at the top of her game as a photographer. Born in Brooklyn in 1919 to an American mother and an Irish father Frances had a twin … Continue reading "Wonderful Photos Backstage at a Frances McLaughlin-Gill Glamour Magazine Shoot in 1952"

“Herein lies the reason for the equivocal effect of grotesque art on many people: the material is unfamiliar, and, by ordinary standards, unpleasant: yet it calls forth a deep instinctive response. Thus they are torn between repulsion and attraction” – William Mortensen In the 1920s, William Mortensen (January 27, 1897 — August 12, … Continue reading "William Mortensen – Fay Wray, Nudes and The Antichrist"

In many ways New York City is a very different place to how it was in the 1970s and early 1980s

Margaret Nolan was a twenty-year-old glamour model when she was selected to be dressed in a gold leather bikini and dipped in gold paint by Robert Brownjohn for the 1964 James Bond movie Goldfinger.

“Herein lies the reason for the equivocal effect of grotesque art on many people: the material is unfamiliar, and, by ordinary standards, unpleasant: yet it calls forth a deep instinctive response. Thus they are torn between repulsion and attraction” – William Mortensen In the 1920s, William Mortensen (January 27, 1897 — August 12, … Continue reading "William Mortensen – Fay Wray, Nudes and The Antichrist"

Take care when harvesting the mandrake “because its roots resembled the human form; when pulled from the ground, its shrieks could cause madness”. Thanks to the British Library’s curation and modern tech (praise be the scanner), the entire 1000-year-old Cotton MS Vitellius C III is online. Written in an Old English translation of … Continue reading "Illustrations from A 1000-Year-Old Guide to the Medicinal Use of Plants"

Austrian physician Stefan Jellinek (May 29, 1871 – September 2, 1968) founded The Electro-Pathological Museum in 1936. He provided the content seen in the book Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern (Electrical Protection in 132 Pictures). Death and electricity went hand-in-hand. But with this book, you would be forewarned. If you can identify all the contraptions, let us … Continue reading "Incredible Illustrations From ‘Elektroschutz in 132 Bildern’ (1936)"

The radio blasted fast, easy headline news. Punks go on rampage at Huntington Park…$25,000 worth of damage…Police called to quell disturbance… The announcer’s voice wafted out cars gridlocked nose-to-tail on the L.A. freeway. Sweaty, vein-tense drivers, thinking, What the hell’s wrong with kids today? Rioting, burning stuff, tearing shit down. Never woulda happened in … Continue reading "Something’s Going On: Mary Lou Fulton’s Newly Rediscovered Photographs of Punks, Mods, and Rockabillies from the 1980s"

The publication of issue 33 of the Royal College of Art’s magazine ARK in the autumn of 1962 hit the moment in terms of the turbo-charging of contemporary youth culture. ARK 33, which was declared to be “mainly about young people… [a] somewhat oblique exposée of the Young Ones”, celebrated the lives of Beat poets, hard partying art … Continue reading "When Ark 33 Got 1960s Youth Culture"

“I started taking photographs in my school days in the 1960s, as a means of recording my interest in railways,” says Trevor Ermel, whose photographs of Newcastle take us back to when the city was still synonymous with heavy industry. In the 1970s, old terraced streets were were being demolished. The Central Motorway East was … Continue reading "33 Photographs of Newcastle in the 1970s"

Photos Of Manchester Slums 1969-72

In 1985 Dave Sinclair was staff photographer for The Militant newspaper. In Liverpool to photograph the school strike against Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government’s Youth Training Scheme, Dave took pictures of the thousands of students, and their homemade placards and banners on a protest that was enthusiastic, boisterous, very funny and good humoured. “There were speeches … Continue reading "British Kids in The 1980s – Brilliant Photographs of Carefree Days"

In 1985 Dave Sinclair was staff photographer for The Militant newspaper. In Liverpool to photograph the school strike against Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government’s Youth Training Scheme, Dave took pictures of the thousands of students, and their homemade placards and banners on a protest that was enthusiastic, boisterous, very funny and good humoured. “There were speeches … Continue reading "British Kids in The 1980s – Brilliant Photographs of Carefree Days"

August 1979: Irvin Kershner is directing The Empire Strikes Back, aka Star Wars Episode V, on Stage 9 of Elstree Studios, England. Today's scenes involve Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) meeting with Jedi Master Yoda. Kershner considers this sequence as "the heart of the picture," as he explained to Alan Arnold in A Journal of the Making of The Empire Strikes Back...

In As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980 Susan Sontag shares her thoughts. In her diary entry for August 9, 1967, Sontag explains why she enjoys making lists: I perceive value, I confer value, I create value, I even create – or guarantee – existence. Hence, my compulsion to make ‘lists’. The … Continue reading "Susan Sontag Lists Her Likes and Dislikes – 1977"

In As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980 Susan Sontag shares her thoughts. In her diary entry for August 9, 1967, Sontag explains why she enjoys making lists: I perceive value, I confer value, I create value, I even create – or guarantee – existence. Hence, my compulsion to make ‘lists’. The … Continue reading "Susan Sontag Lists Her Likes and Dislikes – 1977"

Italo Calvino (October 15, 1923–September 19, 1985) wrote about photography and its place as “aesthetic consumerism” in his 1970s work Difficult Loves. Our need to record everything with a camera, as if failing to do makes it less memorable or even less real, is a theme for the digital age. In foreseeing the addiction … Continue reading "Aesthetic Consumerism and Photography In The Age of Social Media"

“One that I will enjoy, the true story of my sex life, my excessive desire to continue melting the ice of American hypocrisy regarding behaviour and beliefs that are now ‘in the closet’ and only surface in court, crime, or comical conversation.” – Chuck Berry “And Janice, how old are you?” the US Attorney … Continue reading "The Trial of Chuck Berry in 1959"

‘Water, Water Everywhere’ features snapshots on the theme of water from Robert E. Jackson’s fabulous collection of photographs. We’ll start the man underwater at a slant and end with the press photo of looking at a wet street scene through a car window. As we go, we’ll include a few thoughts, poems and lyrics on … Continue reading "Water, Water Everywhere – Wet, Weird and Wonderful Vintage Snapshots To Treasure"

When the USSR-made Lada Riva, also sold as the Nova, ceased production in 2012, it retired as one of the longest running auto models, an illustrious group that includes the Hindustan Ambassador and the Volkswagen bus. The car did not pass any modern safely tests, had a reputation for maximum affordability and minimal reliability, … Continue reading "The Lada Riva and Niva: Iconic Soviet Cars that Outlasted the Empire"