Amazing Photos of Jim Morrison Taken by Yale Joel for LIFE Magazine in 1968

At the time of his 1968 portrait session with LIFE photographer Yale Joel in New York, Jim Morrison and his bandmates of The Doors had released two albums (featuring hits like “Light My Fire,” “People Are Strange” and “Love Me Two Times”), and were about to record a third, Waiting for the Sun.

Jim Morrison wearing leather and standing alone in front of a purple psychedelic backdrop. This was a LIFE magazine assignment taken at the Second Avenue Theater according to Yale Joel.

(Photos: Yale Joel—TIME & LIFE Pictures/Getty Images)

When Shorts Were Short and Socks Were Long: 20 Wonderful Photos of Sidewalk Surfers in the 1970s

Back in 1977 when shorts were short, socks were long and hair was big, professional photographer Nick De Wolf took these excellent shots of young skateboarders or as they were called in the early days 'Sidewalk Surfers' showing off their skills.

These shots were taken in Aspen, Colorado about the time when freestyle skating was really taking off and before it developed into street skating.

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After the Fall: Haunting Photographs Document the Scene Inside Hitler’s Bunker and the Ruins of Berlin

William Vandivert photographed for LIFE from the late 1930s through 1948. In April, 1945, as Russian and German troops fought — savagely, street-by-street — for control of the German capital, it became increasingly clear that the Allies would win the war in Europe. Not long after the two-week battle ended, Vandivert was on the scene, photographing Berlin’s devastated landscape.

Hundreds of thousands perished in the Battle of Berlin — including untold numbers of civilian men, women, and children — while countless more were left homeless in the ruins. But it was two particular deaths, that of Hitler and his longtime companion and (briefly) wife, Eva Braun, in a sordid underground bunker on April 30, 1945, that truly signaled the end of the Third Reich.

Vandivert was the first Western photographer to gain access to Hitler’s Führerbunker (translation: “shelter for the leader”) after the fall of Berlin, and a handful of his pictures of the bunker and the ruined city were published in LIFE in July, 1945. A few of those images are re-published here; most of the pictures in this gallery, however, went unpublished — until now — and illustrate the surreal, disturbing scenes Vandivert encountered in the bunker itself, and in the streets of the ruined, vanquished city beyond the bunker’s concrete walls.

Oberwallstrasse, in central Berlin, saw some of the most vicious fighting between German and Soviet troops in the spring of 1945.

Hitler's bunker partially burned by retreating German troops and stripped of valuables by invading Russians.

A 16th century painting reportedly stolen from a Milan museum.

With only candles to light their way, war correspondents examine a couch stained with blood (see dark patch on the arm of the sofa) located inside Hitler's bunker.

Abandoned furniture and debris inside Adolf Hitler's bunker, Berlin, 1945.

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Sleepless Nights in Paris' Red Light District: 34 Intimate Photographs Document the Lives of Parisian Transsexual Prostitutes in the 1950s and 1960s

Christer Strömholm (1918–-2002) was one of the great photographers of the 20th century, but he is little known outside of his native Sweden.

Arriving in Paris in 1959, Strömholm settled in Place Blanche in the heart of the city's red-light district. There, he befriended and photographed young transsexuals struggling to live as women and to raise money for sex-change operations.

“These are images of people whose lives I shared and whom I think I understood. These are images of women—biologically born as men—that we call ‘transsexuals,’” Strömholm wrote in his book of the series, Les Amies de Place Blanche, published in 1983.

His surprisingly intimate portraits and lush Brassaï-like night scenes form a magnificent, dark, and at times quite moving photo album, a vibrant tribute to these girls, the "girlfriends of Place Blanche."

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Interesting Photos of Famous Photographer's Self-portraits

© Felix Nadar & Adrien Tournachon, Pierrot photographer by the mime Debureau, 1854

© Ed van der Elsken, Self-portrait with Ata Kandó, Paris, 1953

© Germaine Krull, Self-portrait with Ikarette, 1925

© Helmut Newton, Self-portrait with model, Hotel Bijou, Paris, 1973

© Hank Walker

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25 Rare and Fascinating Portraits of Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione in the 1860s

The Italian Virginia Oldoini weds the Comte de Castiglione and is sent in 1856 in Paris to help defend the cause of Italy, in the likes of a spy, with the French emperor. Helped by her beauty, she therefore rapidly becomes the mistress of Napoleon III.

In 1861, separated from her husband and her lover, she definitely settles in Paris where she has several relationships with high figures from the politics, aristocracy and finances. After 1870 and the fall of the Empire, The Comtesse de Castiglione leads a reclusive life, excited by the mystery she arouses around her and refusing to let anyone observe her ageing figure, she, who once was the most beautiful woman of her times.

Terribly narcissistic, the countess had from 1856 asked the official photographer of the Empire, Pierre-Louis Pierson to take hundreds of photographs of her, all precisely and dramatically staged with a distinct costume, expression and aesthetic angle. She gave each image a name inspired by theatre or opera: at a time when fashion photography didn't yet exist, she imagined an incredible avant-garde concept. Below is a collection of 25 fascinating photographs of Virginia Oldoini, Countess of Castiglione from the 1860s.

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42 Rare Color Photographs Capture the Lives of the People in Northern Vietnam in the 1910s

Photographer Leon Busy was assigned by the Albert Kahn Museum in France to go to Vietnam to capture the lives of the people in northern Vietnam (Tonkin) from 1914 to 1917. Here are some of amazing photographs from his work.

Woman Smoking Opium, Hanoi - French Indochina circa 1915

Rue Paul Bert, Hanoi, 1914-1915

Haiphong, 1915

Baie d'Halong, 1915

A district chief reading a patent Imperial, 1916

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