Here’s a series of photos of Halloween retail store displays in 1969.
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October 24, 2012
October 21, 2012
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October 20, 2012
Rare Photos of Empress Elisabeth of Austria From the Late 19th Century
Elisabeth of Bavaria (1837–1898) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, and many other titles (see Grand title of the Empress of Austria) by marriage to Emperor Franz Joseph I.
Born into the royal Bavarian house of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth (also called “Sisi”) enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth’s daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The birth of a male heir, Rudolf, improved her standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain, and she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867.
The death of her only son Rudolf, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and traveled widely, unaccompanied by her family. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, which were already legendary during her life. While traveling in Geneva in 1898, she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress of Austria at 44 years.
Born into the royal Bavarian house of Wittelsbach, Elisabeth (also called “Sisi”) enjoyed an informal upbringing before marrying Emperor Franz Joseph I at the age of sixteen. The marriage thrust her into the much more formal Habsburg court life, for which she was unprepared and which she found uncongenial. Early in the marriage she was at odds with her mother-in-law, Archduchess Sophie, who took over the rearing of Elisabeth’s daughters, one of whom, Sophie, died in infancy. The birth of a male heir, Rudolf, improved her standing at court, but her health suffered under the strain, and she would often visit Hungary for its more relaxed environment. She came to develop a deep kinship with Hungary, and helped to bring about the dual monarchy of Austria–Hungary in 1867.
The death of her only son Rudolf, and his mistress Mary Vetsera, in a murder–suicide at his hunting lodge at Mayerling in 1889 was a blow from which Elisabeth never recovered. She withdrew from court duties and traveled widely, unaccompanied by her family. She was obsessively concerned with maintaining her youthful figure and beauty, which were already legendary during her life. While traveling in Geneva in 1898, she was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist named Luigi Lucheni. Elisabeth was the longest serving Empress of Austria at 44 years.
October 19, 2012
29 Candid Photographs of Celebrities in the Fifties and Sixties Taken by Allan Grant
A LIFE staffer from 1947 until the late 1960s, photographer Allan Grant covered the entertainment world from the inside. His unique blend of cool appraisal and obvious affection for (most) of his subjects went a long way toward making the stars seem just as quirky and approachable as the rest of us mortals.
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| Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly wait backstage at the RKO Pantages Theatre during the 28th Annual Academy Awards, 1956. |
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| Audrey Hepburn, 1956. |
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| Senator Richard Nixon on the roof of his home in Los Angeles, trying to douse fires caused by a brush blaze, 1961. |
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| Dean Martin reads lines with Shirley MacLaine, 1958. |
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| Dean Martin relaxes with his sons at home, 1958. |
Vivian Maier’s Unpublished Photos
Since Vivian Maier’s photographs were unearthed at an auction several years back, her work and her story have captivated people across the world. The idea that a lifelong nanny was secretly an astoundingly good street photographer—that the greatest collection of photos of Chicago from the 1950s through the 1970s had been sitting undiscovered in storage unit on the South Side—prompted blog post after blog post, story after story, exhibit after exhibit. Most of these offered very little in terms of biographical information about the highly private Maier, who didn’t seem to have any family or close friends.
But surely there had been someone. A secret lover? A neighbor turned confidant, who would turn up and explain what drove Maier to carry a camera around her neck every day of her life, to capture beautiful, moving, and humorous portraits and scenes and share them with no one? Co-authors Richard Cahan and Michael Williams spent the last year attempting to fill the gaps in the story of Vivian Maier. They contacted just about every home she’d worked in, interviewed the children she cared for, the neighbors who watched her with skepticism as she pointed her camera into garbage cans. They found the people who repaired her cameras and those who sold her film. And the answer, sadly, for those of us hoping to get even further into Vivian Maier’s brain, is no. There was no one. Maier’s only partner in life, her only confidant, was her camera.
The images below, along with the majority of the other images in Cahan and Williams’ book Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows have never before been seen. She kept them locked away from the families she worked for, never sharing them with anyone—even herself. The images come from 20,000 scanned negatives that don’t appear ever to have been printed during her lifetime.
But surely there had been someone. A secret lover? A neighbor turned confidant, who would turn up and explain what drove Maier to carry a camera around her neck every day of her life, to capture beautiful, moving, and humorous portraits and scenes and share them with no one? Co-authors Richard Cahan and Michael Williams spent the last year attempting to fill the gaps in the story of Vivian Maier. They contacted just about every home she’d worked in, interviewed the children she cared for, the neighbors who watched her with skepticism as she pointed her camera into garbage cans. They found the people who repaired her cameras and those who sold her film. And the answer, sadly, for those of us hoping to get even further into Vivian Maier’s brain, is no. There was no one. Maier’s only partner in life, her only confidant, was her camera.
The images below, along with the majority of the other images in Cahan and Williams’ book Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows have never before been seen. She kept them locked away from the families she worked for, never sharing them with anyone—even herself. The images come from 20,000 scanned negatives that don’t appear ever to have been printed during her lifetime.
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| Coney Island, New York, 1950s. (Photograph by Vivian Maier/Courtesy Cityfiles Press.) |
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| Wilmette Beach, 1968. (Photograph by Vivian Maier/Courtesy Cityfiles Press) |
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| Wilmette Beach, 1968. (Photograph by Vivian Maier/Courtesy Cityfiles Press) |
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| New York City 1950s. (Photograph by Vivian Maier/Courtesy Cityfiles Press) |
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| New York City 1950s. (Photograph by Vivian Maier/Courtesy Cityfiles Press) |
October 18, 2012
Pictures of the First Moscow Beauty Contest in the USSR, 1988
In the times of Mikhail Gorbachev many things started to change in the country. That period might be called a period of imitation. It came to show business too. The first beauty contest in the USSR became a sensation. Abroad the event called “Moscow beauty” was even called as loud as the flight of Gagarin into space.
Perestroika let any woman of the country who considered herself to be beautiful come and show herself. The casting took place in Gorky Park, the line was about two km long! Many women were accompanied by children and husbands, many of them were holding string bags. Those girls who were patient enough to stand in the line for some hours filled in forms.
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Perestroika let any woman of the country who considered herself to be beautiful come and show herself. The casting took place in Gorky Park, the line was about two km long! Many women were accompanied by children and husbands, many of them were holding string bags. Those girls who were patient enough to stand in the line for some hours filled in forms.
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October 17, 2012
Jewish Ghetto Life: 21 Color Photos Made by Hitler's Personal Photographer in the German Ghettos in Occupied Poland
Why would Hugo Jaeger, a photographer dedicated to lionizing Adolf Hitler and the “triumphs” of the Third Reich, choose to immortalize conquered Jews in Warsaw and Kutno (in central Poland) in such an uncharacteristic, intimate manner? Most German photographers working in the same era as Jaeger usually focused on the Wehrmacht; on Nazi leaders; and on the military victories the Reich was routinely enjoying in the earliest days of the Second World War. Those pictures frequently document brutal acts of humiliation, even as they glorify German troops.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, German photographer Hugo Jaeger enjoyed unprecedented access to the Third Reich’s upper echelon, traveling with Adolf Hitler to massive rallies and photographing him at intimate parties and in quieter, private moments. The photos made such an impression on the Führer that Hitler famously declared, upon first seeing Jaeger’s work: “The future belongs to color photography.”
But beyond merely chronicling Hitler’s ceaseless travels, Jaeger also documented the brute machinery of the Reich, including the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Here's a series of photos from Warsaw and from the town of Kutno, 75 miles west of the Polish capital, taken by Hugo Jaeger in 1939 and 1940.
In the late 1930s and early 1940s, German photographer Hugo Jaeger enjoyed unprecedented access to the Third Reich’s upper echelon, traveling with Adolf Hitler to massive rallies and photographing him at intimate parties and in quieter, private moments. The photos made such an impression on the Führer that Hitler famously declared, upon first seeing Jaeger’s work: “The future belongs to color photography.”
But beyond merely chronicling Hitler’s ceaseless travels, Jaeger also documented the brute machinery of the Reich, including the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939. Here's a series of photos from Warsaw and from the town of Kutno, 75 miles west of the Polish capital, taken by Hugo Jaeger in 1939 and 1940.
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| Kutno, German-occupied Poland, 1939. |
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| Unidentified woman, Kutno, Nazi-occupied Poland, 1939. |
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| Warsaw, German-occupied Poland, 1940. |
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| Unidentified woman and child, Kutno, Nazi-occupied Poland, 1939. |
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| Kutno, Nazi-occupied Poland, 1939. |
