The Old Clothes of St. Giles in Seven Dials, London, ca. 1877

This vintage photograph represents a second-hand clothes shop in a narrow thoroughfare of St. Giles, appropriately called Lumber Court, where several similar tradesmen are grouped together, all dealing in old clothes and furniture of a most varied and dilapidated description. It is here that the poorest inhabitants of a district, renowned for its poverty, both buy and sell their clothes.

Photographer John Thomson (1837–1921) used the ‘Woodburytype’ process patented in 1864 for the images in Street Life in London, including this photograph. This was a type of photomechanical reproduction using pigmented gelatin, usually of a rich purple-brown color. The process was complicated but remained popular until about 1900 because of the high quality and permanence of the finished images.

The people in the pictures were arranged or posed by Thomson to form interesting compositions. However, the results were often naturalistic because the subjects and surroundings were always authentic.

St Giles is an area in the West End of London. It gets its name from the parish church of St Giles in the Fields. The combined parishes of St Giles in the Fields and St George Bloomsbury (which was carved out of the former) were administered jointly for many centuries; leading to the conflation of the two, with much or all of St Giles usually taken to be a part of Bloomsbury. Points of interest include the church of St Giles in the Fields, Seven Dials, the Phoenix Garden and St Giles Circus. The area falls within the London Borough of Camden local authority area.

Beautiful Vintage Photos and Posters of French Entertainer Mistinguett

Mistinguett (born Jeanne Florentine Bourgeois) was a French actress and singer. Bourgeois aspired to be an entertainer at a very young age. She began as a flower seller in a restaurant in her hometown, singing popular ballads while selling blossoms. After taking classes in theatre and singing, she began her career as an entertainer in 1885. One day on the train to Paris for a violin lesson, she met Saint-Marcel, who directed the revue at the Casino de Paris. He engaged her first as a stage-hand, and here she began to pursue her goal to become an entertainer.

Bourgeois made her debut as Mistinguett at the Casino de Paris in 1895 and went on to appear in venues such as the Folies Bergère, Moulin Rouge and Eldorado. Her risqué routines captivated Paris, and she went on to become the most popular French entertainer of her time and the highest-paid female entertainer in the world, even having her legs insured for 500,000 francs in 1919. During a tour of the United States, Mistinguett was asked by Time magazine to explain her popularity. “It is a kind of magnetism.” She replied. “I say 'Come closer' and draw them to me.”

Mistinguett died at the age of 8    2 in Bougival, France. Upon her death, writer Jean Cocteau observed in an obituary: “Her voice, slightly off-key, was that of the Parisian street hawkers—the husky, trailing voice of the Paris people. She was of the animal race that owes nothing to intellectualism. She incarnated herself. She flattered a French patriotism that was not shameful. It is normal now that she should crumble, like the other caryatids of that great and marvelous epoch that was ours.”

Take a look at the great French entertainer through these 21 captivating vintage photographs and posters:

Mistinguett and Max Dearly by Adrien Barrere, ca. 1909

Mistinguett by G.K. Benda, 1913

Mistinguett, 1920

Mistinguett by Leonetto Cappiello, 1920

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40 Glamorous Photos of Classic Beauties Taken by A L “Whitey” Schafer in the 1930s and ’40s

Born 1902 in Salt Lake City, Utah, American photographer A L “Whitey” Schafer moved with his family to Hollywood around 1917. He joined Famous Players-Lasky to work in the stills laboratory, processing prints in 1921.

Classic beauties taken by A L “Whitey” Schafer in the 1930s and ’40s

In 1923, Schafer joined the Thomas Ince Studio, where he shoots stills and occasionally appears in movies. In a 1948 Popular Photography article he recalls, “That was in the days when everybody on the lot was called on to act at times. When we weren’t shooting pictures, we were doing ‘walk-ons’.”

In 1932, Schafer moved to Columbia. In 1935, he succeeded William Fraker (father of “Bud” Fraker) as head of Columbia’s stills photography department, and replaced Eugene Robert Richee as head of Paramount’s stills photography department in 1941.

A L “Whitey” Schafer is considered a leading stills photographer in Hollywood during the 1930s and ’40s. He died in 1951 at the age of 49 when a stove aboard a yacht explodes as he tried to help the owner light it.

These glamorous photos are part of his work that Schafer took portraits of classic beauties in the 1930s and 1940s.

Ann Sothern, circa 1930s

Constance Bennett, circa 1930s

Jean Parker, circa 1930s

Paulette Goddard, 1930

Loretta Young, 1931

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Found Photos That Show What Women Wore in the 1930s

The Great Depression and World War II bookended the 1930s, but fashion flourished anyway during this decade. Glamorous Hollywood screen stars inspired new looks for women, men, and even children. Inexpensive fabrics, affordable catalog clothing, and homespun ingenuity let anyone copy styles previously worn by the wealthy.

The young, boyish silhouette of 1920s women evolved into a conservative, sophisticated shape in the 1930s. The ideal, popular profile was tall and thin, with strong shoulders and slim hips.

At home or in public, women most commonly wore dresses with wide shoulders; puffy sleeves; modest necklines; higher, belted waistlines; and mid-calf flared hemlines. Frilly bows, ruffles, buttons, and other details often decorated dresses.

Housewives wore practical house dresses at home, often homemade from colorful printed cotton (including flour and feed sack fabric). Day dresses for wearing in public were more tailored and elegant, often made from silk or rayon crepe. Some women wore blouses with skirts.

Formal dresses most dramatically displayed the decade’s willowy, elegant silhouette. Evening gowns in fluid fabrics were cut on the bias to create flowing, figure-hugging lines that reached the floor. Popular fabrics included satin, rayon, and chiffon.

Take a look at these found photos from Sam Salt to see what women wore from the 1930s.

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34 Amazing Photographs Capture Everyday Life in Spanish Harlem in the Mid-1980s

Spanish Harlem, New York’s oldest barrio, is the U.S. mecca where Puerto Ricans first established themselves in the 1940s. One of America’s most vital centers of Latino culture, Spanish Harlem is home to 125,000 people, half of whom are Latino.

Shot in the mid-to-late 1980s, Joseph Rodriguez’s superb photographs bring us into the core of the neighborhood, capturing a spirit of a people that survives despite the ravages of poverty, and more recently, the threat of gentrification and displacement. In a now-distant landscape littered with abandoned buildings, ominous alleyways, and the plague of addiction, the residents of Spanish Harlem persevered with flamboyant style and gritty self-reliance.

The heart of the work comes from Rodriguez’s intimacy and access. The trust and familiarity he built with his subjects-repeated visits with no camera, then no photographing, then little by little, a peek here, a shot there-allowed him to transcend surface level sheen and exploitation to capture images that reveal the essence of the neighborhood and of the era. That access paired with a sharp eye for detail and composition, and the practiced and disciplined ability to find the perfect moment, led to the creation of an entirely unique and breathtaking narrative. From idyllic scenes of children playing under the sprinklers on the playground, or performing the Bomba Plena on “Old Timer’s Day,” to shocking images of men shooting up speedballs and children dying of AIDS, Rodriguez reveals a day in the life of the barrio in the 1980s.

Joseph Rodriguez was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. He began studying photography at the School of Visual Arts and went on to receive an Associate of Applied Science degree at New York City Technical College. He worked in the graphic arts industry before deciding to pursue photography further. In 1985 he graduated with a Photojournalism and Documentary diploma from the International Center of Photography in New York.

Rodriguez went on to work for Black Star photo agency, and print and online news organizations like National Geographic, The New York Times Magazine, Mother Jones, Newsweek, Esquire, Stern, and New America Media. He has received awards and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, Artists’ Fellowship, USC Annenberg Institute for Justice and Journalism, the Open Society Institute Justice Media Fellowship and Katrina Media Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, Mother Jones International Fund for Documentary Photography, and the Alicia Patterson Fellowship Fund for Investigative Journalism. He has been awarded Pictures of the Year by the National Press Photographers Association and the University of Missouri, in 1990, 1992, 1996 and 2002.

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Beauty Machine Removes Excess Flesh Without Exercise, 1931

Fashion moguls have decreed that the boyish figure is passé, and that graceful curves are to be the coming mode. So, anticipating a need among the women, a far-sighted inventor has devised an instrument which literally rolls these curves into the body, getting rid of excess flesh without developing unsightly bundles of muscles, which exercising gave in 1931.

An important feature of the new device, however, is that developing these curves requires no work, for milady can become stylish in this new machine while reading a book, smoking a cigarette, or even gossiping. Hips, the chief point of attack, are reduced by means of rollers which massage the flesh, as illustrated in the accompanying photo.

Milady can smoke, read and gossip while this unique machine rolls off excess pounds of flesh around the hips, giving graceful curves, which fashion experts have decreed to be the coming mode. Massaging is performed by the rollers.

30 Vintage Photos of Catherine Deneuve Smoking Cigarette

The French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo spent almost an entire film – the 1960s classic À Bout du Souffle (Breathless) – with a Gauloise dangling from his lips. Audrey Tautou portrayed the designer Coco Chanel pinning haute couture dresses while smoking. Jacques Tati was rarely without his pipe and Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Catherine Deneuve, Gérard Depardieu and Alain Delon all puffed their way through decades of movies.

“I don’t understand why the cigarette is so important in French cinema,” Agnès Buzyn once said.

Catherine Deneuve always seems to have a cigarette in her hand. When one cigarette is finished, another is sparked. “I don’t inhale anymore, it’s bad for your health,” she declared when questioned about her habit. She doesn’t like doing sport either, and keeps healthy by gardening and surrounding herself with her grandchildren. “I try to do what is right with my health, but that is the only thing I haven’t managed to give up yet. People say I should give up, which of course I should, but that’s not what I’d call advice. That’s a fact! Give me advice to stop smoking without suffering, now that would be interesting.”

Catherine Deneuve (born October 22, 1943) is an iconic French actress known for playing cool blondes with hidden depths in the work of some of Europe’s greatest directors. Her legendary beauty and classical elegance have made her famous throughout the world where she is as well known for her promotion of perfume and fashion as she is for her acting.

While in London Deneuve met fashion photographer David Bailey and on August 19, 1965, after a brief courtship, they were married. Their relationship was marred however by affairs on both sides, as well as a language barrier, and eventually ended in an amicable divorce in 1972. She has since said, “Marriage is obsolete and a trap.”

Deneuve returned to France to star in Marcel Camus’ Le Chant du monde (Song of the World, 1965), Agnes Varda’s Les Creatures (1966), and Jean-Paul Rappaneau’s La Vie de château (A Matter of Resistance, 1966). In 1967 she re-teamed with Jacques Demy to make the charming musical Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (The Young Ladies of Rochefort, 1967) opposite her real-life sister, Francoise Dorléac. But it was the film she made just prior to that, Luis Bunuel’s Belle de Jour, that was to make Deneuve an international star.

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