Photograph of a Woman Seen From the Back, ca. 1862

Woman Seen From the Back is an 1860s photograph by 19th-century French photographer, Vicomte Onesipe Aguado de las Marismas (1830–1893). It is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and was purchased by the Museum in 2005 as part of the Gilman Photographs Collection.

Onesipe Aguado was the youngest of three brothers born to the wealthy banker Alexandre Aguado. His oldest brother Olympe Aquado were amateur enthusiasts who split their time between socialite activities, a close family life, and photography. Upon their father’s death in 1842, Onesipe and Olympe inherited a considerable fortune that included vacation homes.

Onesipe and Olympe were students of Gustave Le Gray, and were active early members of the Societe Francaise de Photographie. They were early makers of photographic enlargements and known for their experimentations with photographic processes—producing daguerreotypes, cartes-des-visites, techniques with negative paper for landscapes and collodion on glass for portraits. They were also known for the diversity of their subjects—deserted interiors, close studies of trees as well as sweeping pastorals, portraits, reproductions of works of arts and snapshots of sailboats.

At once a portrait, a fashion plate, and a jest, this fascinating image expresses Aguado’s whimsical mood, and is probably an extension of his work on foreshortening. It is strangely devoid of depth, as if the sitter were a two-dimensional cutout, a mere silhouette. The figure brings to mind the compositions of such painters as Caspar David Friedrich and René Magritte, both of whom made haunting use of figures seen from the back.

The portrait, Woman Seen From the Back, a salted paper print from glass negative, suggests the wit and playfulness of its photographer. The image is devoid of depth, possibly an extension of the artists’ work on foreshortening, making the sitter appear two dimensional and merely a silhouette.

Olympe Aguado, self portrait with his brother Onésipe (sitting, left), 1853.

37 Vintage Photos of Sean Connery as James Bond Through the Years

Sean Connery's breakthrough in his acting career came in the role of British secret agent James Bond. He was reluctant to commit to a film series, but understood that if the films succeeded, his career would greatly benefit. Between 1962 and 1967, Connery played 007 in Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), and You Only Live Twice (1967), the first five Bond films produced by Eon Productions. After departing from the role, Connery returned for the seventh film, Diamonds Are Forever, in 1971. Connery made his final appearance as Bond in Never Say Never Again, a 1983 remake of Thunderball produced by Jack Schwartzman's Taliafilm. All seven films were commercially successful.

Although Bond had made him a star, Connery grew tired of the role and the pressure the franchise put on him, saying “[I am] fed up to here with the whole Bond bit” and “I have always hated that damned James Bond. I'd like to kill him”.

Take a look back at Connery as the secret agent through 37 vintage photographs below:

'Dr. No'

'Dr. No'

'Dr. No'

'From Russia With Love'

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Fabulous Photos of Grace Coddington as a Model in the 1960s

Born 1941 on the island of Anglesey in Wales, Grace Coddington is a Welsh former model and former creative director at large of American Vogue magazine. She is known for the creation of large, complex and dramatic photoshoots. A Guardian profile wrote that she “has produced some of fashion’s most memorable imagery. Her pictures might be jolly and decadent or moody and mysterious.”

Grace Coddington as a model in the 1960s

In 1959 at the age of 18, there was a Vogue model competition, and someone submitted her pictures. Coddington ended up winning the Young Model section and was featured in the October issue in a photograph by Norman Parkinson. She then began her modeling career for Vogue.

At the age of 26, Coddington was in car accident that left her with head injuries and a removed eyelid, which was later reconstructed through plastic surgery. Two years after the accident, she was interviewed by British Vogue’s Editor, Beatrix Miller, and was employed as a Junior Editor. After nineteen years as Photo Editor with British Vogue, she moved to New York to work for Calvin Klein. In July 1988, she joined Anna Wintour at American Vogue, where she worked as the magazine’s creative director until 2016.

In 2018 Coddington also partnered with Louis Vuitton on a capsule collection, featuring many designs incorporating her cats.

Take a look at these fabulous photos to see portrait of a young Grace Coddington as a model in the 1960s.

Grace Coddington, 1960

Grace Coddington wearing a Vidal Sassoon hairdo, photo by Terence Donovan, London, February 1961

Grace Coddington, photo by Peter Akehurst, 1961

Grace Coddington in after-six black jersey dress with glittering jet draping from the shoulders by Christian Dior-London, photo by Richard Dormer, Harper's Bazaar UK, November 1962

Grace Coddington in black-and-white diagonal weave, flannel beret by Chez Elle, shoes by Charles Jourdan, photo by Georges Garcin, Harper's Bazaar UK, August 1962

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Street Styles of 1980s New Yorkers Taken by Amy Arbus

American photographer Amy Arbus has been creating photographic portraits since the 1980s. She has published five books, including The Inconvenience of Being Born, After Images, and The Fourth Wall which The New Yorker called her “masterpiece.” Her photographs have been featured in hundreds of periodicals, including French Vogue, GQ, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair.

Street styles of the 1980s New Yorkers taken by Amy Arbus

As a native New Yorker, Amy is best known for her style feature, “On the Street,” which appeared in The Village Voice from 1980-1990. Her mission was to seek out the trendsetters that fashion designers would look to for inspiration. Her camera was a ticket into their world, and many of her subjects went on to become famous musicians, designers, and artists. The series was a chronicle of a seminal time in New York City’s history and was later turned into the book, On the Street 1980-1990.

Arbus has taught The Narrative Portrait at the International Center of Photography, Anderson Ranch, Fine Arts Work Center, and NORD Photography in Norway. American Photo selected her workshop as a Top Workshop for 2008.

In 2019, Arbus collaborated with painter and sculptor Martha Posner to create a #MeToo project. These amazing photos are part of her work that Amy Arbus took portraits of New Yorkers in the 1980s.

The Clash, 1981

Diaper Family, 1981

Katy K and John Sex, 1981

Lesbian Couple, 1981

Moroccan Pants, 1981

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19th Century Rock Stars: Early Photos of the Hutchinson Family Singers From the 1840s

The Hutchinson Family Singers took 19th-century America by storm. Their fame rivaled and even outshone the stars of today. Through their performances in front of interracial audiences, they also changed hearts and minds about some of the big political issues of the day, like slavery and womens’ rights. They are considered by many to be the first uniquely American popular music performers.

The group formed in the wake of a string of successful tours by Austrian singing groups such as the Tyrolese Minstrels and when American newspapers were demanding the cultivation of native talent. John Hutchinson orchestrated the group’s formation with his brothers Asa, Jesse, and Judson Hutchinson in 1840; the eleven sons and two daughters gave their first performance on November 6 of that same year. The popularization of group singing in America arguably began with them. Jesse Hutchinson quit the main group to write songs and manage their affairs; he was replaced by sister Abby Hutchinson.

The Hutchinsons were a hit with both audiences and critics, and they toured the United States. They popularized four-part close harmony. The group’s material included controversial material promoting abolitionism, workers’ rights, temperance, and women's rights, all stances popularized by the Second Great Awakening.

After the Hutchinson Family Singers’ first New York City concert on May 13, 1843, the New York Tribune wrote: “The Hutchinson family gave a concert on Saturday evening and acquitted themselves quite well. They . . . know how to make music, decidedly, though some of their songs are not well chosen either to gratify the audience or exhibit their peculiar powers. We wish they would take care to favor the unscientific public with the words of their songs distinctly. Russell does so, and it is to thousands one of the best points of his singing.”

Abolitionist Button, ca. 1850s

Abolitionist Button is an early photography daguerreotype and gold photographic print created from between the 1840s to the 1850s. It lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The image is in the public domain, and tagged jewelry and political work.

This miniature daguerreotype shows two hands resting on a book. The photograph is set into a two-piece gold-washed brass frame with a loop on the reverse for sewing to a garment. The case design with its simple, raised ornamental border is typical of the gilt-metal buttons mass-produced from 1830 to 1850 in several New England factories such as the Scovill Manufacturing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut, which also manufactured daguerreotype plates. The button was discovered in the early 1980s in a flea market in Massachusetts.

The use of buttons for political purposes in the United States began in the 1700s with buttons that proclaimed “Independence,” as the goal of the oppressed colonists, and “Long Live the President,” in honor of the inauguration of George Washington. But it was not until the 1828 presidential campaign of Andrew Jackson, just twenty years before the likely date of this photograph, that the button became a regular part of American elections. From “Jackson--True Standard” to “I Like Ike,” the political button, both with and without pictures, developed into a characteristically American means of both political advertising and personal expression.

For many years, the image was believed to represent an anti-slavery motif of two hands—one black, one white—resting on a Bible. Today, after detailed digital imaging, the photograph seems to show the hands of just one individual. The symbolic meaning of this unique button is thus open for reinterpretation.

30 Stunning Color Photographs of Paris in 1923

Jules Gervais-Courtellemont (1863–1931) was a French photographer who was famous for taking color autochromes during World War I. He was born near Fontainebleau in Avon, Seine-et-Marne, south of Paris. Courtellemont emigrated with his parents in 1874 to Algeria, and remained there for 20 years.

Paris in 1923, taken by Jules Gervais-Courtellemont.

He became a globetrotter, always in search of something special and exotic. His photography drew him as far as the eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and on to Asia. He collected his works, the moment he had captured with his camera. A head full of dreams and two feet on the ground, is how a contemporary described the artist of light painting.

Courtellemont returned to his home province to record the war. His work reflects the photographic traditions of the autochrome. Landscapes are carefully composed, with due attention to lighting and placement within the picture frame. He used symbols such as the lonely cross and the charred tree for dramatic effect. Judging from the popularity of his lectures in Paris during the war, and the series of publications featuring the battles of Marne and Verdun, his autochromes had the ability to attract a great deal of public interest.

After the war, Courtellemont worked for an American publication. He eventually became a photographer for National Geographic. He was a lifelong friend of the novelist, Orientalist and photographer Pierre Loti. While over 5,500 Gervais-Courtellemont autochromes survive in various institutional collections, including the Musée Albert-Kahn in Boulogne-Billancourt and the Cinémathèque Robert-Lynen in central Paris, his work in private hands is quite rare and sought after.

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