Rare Vintage Photographs of the Inuit People in Canada's Frozen North West During the Early 1900s

Geraldine Moodie was western Canada's first professional woman photographer, running successful studios in Alberta and Saskatchewan in the 1890s, where she became well known for her portrait photography. Geraldine's husband Douglas was a senior officer of the North-West Mounted Police.

When Douglas was assigned to establish a NWMP detachment in Fullerton Harbour, on the western shore of Hudson's Bay, Geraldine accompanied him and brought her photographic equipment. The two Moodies were an inspired and complementary pair; she set up a studio in the police detachment house and took intimate portraits of the local Inuit community, while he (trained in photography by his wife) documented the landscape and his work with the Mounted Police.

“Words cannot describe this wonderful coast, apparantly (apparently) devoid of everything that goes to make a land attractive, it still has a grandeur and beauty all its own,” Geraldine wrote in her diary. “The whole sea and land as far as the eye can see lends itself to inspire ghostly imaginations, nothing but snow & the sea in an unbroken expanse of ice and snow. In the sunshine it is beautiful, but at night it looks uncanny, the northern light shifting and changing all the time.”

Geraldine also wrote of improving her technique while photographing the Arctic. “There has always been such a glare of snow with nothing to relieve that it gave no definition when photographed, and made a poor negative. I tried it under every condition of light, and finally found by stopping my lens very low and taking the photo when the afternoon sun was very bright, throwing strong shadows that I succeeded in getting a fine negative.”

Inuit women and children at summer camp, Fullerton Harbour, Nunavut, August 1906. (Photo by Geraldine Moodie/The Guardian)

Inuit woman, Kootucktuck, in her beaded attigi. Fullerton Harbour, Nunavut, February 1905. (Photo by Geraldine Moodie/The Guardian)

Hudson Bay Company store covered with furs, Churchill, Manitoba, circa 1906-09. (Photo by Geraldine Moodie/The Guardian)

Inuit man, Kingnuck, of the Kinepetoo tribe, Fullerton Harbour, Nunavut, February 5, 1905. (Photo by Geraldine Moodie/The Guardian)

Inuit man, Toopealock, of the Kinepetoo, Fullerton Harbour, Nunavut, c.1904-05. (Photo by Geraldine Moodie/The Guardian)

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Fascinating Black and White Photographs That Capture Everyday Life in Seoul After the Korean War

These amazing photographs were taken by Korean photographer Han Youngsoo in the years after the end of the Korean War. After taking part in bitter frontline fighting as a young South Korean soldier during the Korean War (1950–53), Han Youngsoo returned to Seoul at the conflict’s end and found a devastated, impoverished city.

Choosing photography as a profession, he witnessed a period of profound transformation in Seoul that saw the rapid creation of a modern city and urban society. His photographs, rarely seen outside of Korea until now, offer a fascinating window onto the changing everyday lives of the city’s inhabitants during a historic moment.

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'Then and Now' of London: 27 Incredible Pictures Show the Change of Camden Town Through the Years

Camden Town, often shortened to Camden, is an inner city district of northwest London, 2.4 miles (3.9 km) north of the centre of London. It is one of the 35 major centres identified in the London Plan.

Laid out as a residential district from 1791 and originally part of the manor of Kentish Town and the parish of St Pancras, London, Camden Town became an important location during the early development of the railways, which reinforced its position on the London canal network. The area's industrial economic base has been replaced by service industries such as retail, tourism and entertainment. The area now hosts street markets and music venues which are strongly associated with alternative culture.

Take a look at these incredible 'then and now' photos from Warsaw1948 to see what street scenes of Camden area has changed through the years.

 Brittania pub, 1904 vs 2013

 Camden High Street and Buck pub, 1904 vs 2013

 Mother Redcap (now World's End), 1904 vs 2013

 The tube station entrance in Camden High Street, 1937 vs 2011

 Camden High Street and station 1938 vs 2013

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Musicians in Early Photography – 27 Rare Pictures Show Victorian and Edwardian Accordionists

The first accordions were invented in the early nineteenth century. In Germany, Christian Buschmann introduced and patented an instrument called the "Handaeoline" in 1822. It had an expandable bellows, a portable keyboard, and a series of free vibrating reeds inside.

Over the next several decades, various improvements were made to the accordion. One major modification was made in 1850, when the chromatic accordion was introduced. The early diatonic accordions produced different notes when the bellows were drawn opened and pressed closed. The chromatic versions produce the same note regardless of the action of the bellows. Steel reeds were incorporated into the instrument in 1857. The addition of more bass keys was particularly important.

By the early twentieth century, manufacturers had settled on a standard size and shape for the instruments, which eventually led to the modern accordion.

A photo set of accordionists in Victorian and Edwardian eras will give you a clearer view.

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The Lost Tribes of Tierra del Fuego: Rare and Haunting Photos of Selk'nam People Posing With Their Traditional Body-Painting

The Selk’nam, a stone-age hunting culture inhabited the Tierra del Fuego area of southern Argentina and Chile for 7,000 years. During those times the tribes lived nomadically and in tune with the land—hunting, gathering and fishing.

The Selk’nam had no chiefs, but were instead led by wise men (‘fathers of the world’) who were believed to possess spiritual power over people, weather and events. The tribe’s most sacred ceremony was the coming-of-age, or the ‘hain’. Adult male members of the tribe would be painted with red, black and white paint and don fur, down and bark costumes, impersonating much feared spirits. Over a period of days or weeks they would conduct a complex initiation to transition boys into manhood.

One of the last such ceremonies was performed in 1920 and recorded by the missionary, Martin Gusinde. When Gusinde was ordained as a priest in Germany in 1911, he hoped to travel to New Guinea to work as a missionary among exotic tribes. Instead, his superiors sent him to Chile to teach at the German school in Santiago. Within a few years, however, he found his calling at Chile’s Museum of Ethnology and Anthropology, carrying out expeditions to Tierra del Fuego in the far south of Chile and Argentina.

Gusinde first went to Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego in December of 1918, filled with (in his own words) “indescribable enthusiasm” and “youthful dreams” of an encounter with archaic tribes. Gusinde’s haunting photographs of the Selk’nam, Yamana, and Kawésqar peoples present a way of life that was already on the brink of extinction when he visited the region in 1918–1924 and that has since ceased to exist.

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Joyful 1930s Snapshots of Ballet Dancers Dancing at the Beach or the Pool on Their Days Off

In 1931, George Balanchine, who was ballet master and choreographer for the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, recruited “baby ballerina” Irina Baronova, a 13-year-old dancer of Russian birth. The company wanted to be modern in its approach, looking to put together quick, smart productions with smaller budgets, less frippery, and more modern choreography than the established companies. Hoping for freshness and flexibility, Balanchine cast very young ballerinas.

The company’s name and approach to dance came from an iconic early-20th-century group directed by Sergei Diaghilev, which had performed widely in Europe but only a few times in the United States. The new Ballets Russes companies of the 1930s toured often in the States, and with the accessibility and modernity of their approach, fueled an increase in ballet’s popularity in this country.

Irena Baronova’s daughter, actress Victoria Tennant, has published a book of her mother’s photographs from this time, Irina Baronova and the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo. The book includes many joyful snapshots of the Ballets Russes dancers swimming, diving, and dancing at the beach or the pool on their days off.

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A Little Girl Feeding Some Baby Crocodiles, 1932

“The babies get their milk - whether they like it or not!”

A little girl (about 4 or 5 years old) feeding some baby crocodiles. She picks one out of a box and proceeds to feed it with a baby's bottle.

The little girl chastising one of the baby crocs as if it were a dolly. The crocodile doesn’t seem interested in the bottle at all. The little girl chats incessantly to the baby croc. She keeps telling it off and hitting it on the head until eventually it bites her finger! She looks shocked and immediately puts her finger in her mouth. She then says: “Ouch, he hurt me.”

(© British Pathé)