Amazing Polaroids of Diana Ross Taken by Andy Warhol

“A picture means I know where I was every minute. That’s why I take pictures. It’s a visual diary.” – Andy Warhol

Warhol, the Pop artist who created some of the most iconic art of the 20th century, could’ve literally been speaking about Instagram. He once stated, “In the future everybody will be famous for 15 minutes,” and how right he was. These Polaroids presaged the era of social media and they could’ve been its calling card.

Using a Polaroid Big Shot and an SX-70 cameras, Warhol made thousands of instant photographs. He used them in many ways: to document his art and aid in his drawing for ads, take snapshots of friends and celebrities, make self-portraits, and create portraits that would become studies for silkscreen prints and paintings. Polaroids also served as a starting point for commercial work, such as album covers and advertisements. Still many other snapshots were simply part of Warhol’s quotidian visual diary—like sketches of the people who passed through his daily life.

Here, some amazing Polaroid portraits of Diana Ross, former lead singer of the Motown group The Supremes, taken by Andy Warhol from the early 1980s:

Steel Barrel Tested in 200-Foot Drop, 1933

An eighteen-story plunge in Detroit, Michigan, tested the strength of a new-type beer barrel in 1933. Made of steel, the barrel was filled with water and carried to the eighteenth floor of a hotel.

It would really suck if someone picked that moment to walk out to their car.

Here it was dropped from a window, plunging more than 200 feet to a hard-packed gravel parking space at the rear of the building. The barrel is said to have survived the shock without springing a leak, although the side was badly dented.

In a second test, another barrel was not even dented by the long drop, according to the manufacturer.

24 Black and White Photos of the Notting Hill Carnival in 1981

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual Caribbean festival event that has taken place in London since 1966 on the streets of the Notting Hill area of Kensington, each August over two days (the August bank holiday Monday and the preceding Sunday).

Notting Hill Carnival in 1981

It is led by members of the British West Indian community, and attracts around two and a half million people annually, making it one of the world’s largest street festivals, and a significant event in Black British culture.

In 2006, the UK public voted it onto a list of icons of England. These black and white photos were taken by Norman Craig that show the Notting Hill Carnival in 1981.

“Take a picture of me and my mate”

Carnival 1980s style

Dancing all the way down Ladbroke Grove. Nowadays the parade goes in the opposite direction

Dancing in the streets

Fancy meeting you here

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Striking Black and White Photos of Chicago in 1941

In the depths of the Great Depression, the United States government created the Resettlement Administration to help provide relief for drought-stricken and impoverished farmers. The RA was restructured and renamed the Farm Security Administration in 1937.

One of the FSA’s most notable efforts was its small team of documentary photographers, who traveled the country recording the living conditions of Americans. Directed by Roy Stryker, the photographers included now-legendary documentarians Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Gordon Parks and Russell Lee, among others.

In 1936, 21-year-old Minnesotan John Felix Vachon got a job with the FSA as an assistant messenger while attending the Catholic University of America. He had no previous interest in photography, but his constant immersion in the work of the FSA photographers motivated him to try his own hand at shooting.

He started out by wandering around Washington with a Leica camera, and soon received training, equipment and encouragement from Stryker, Evans and other FSA photographers. By 1938, he was shooting solo assignments.

Here, the still-green photographer explores the streets of Chicago in 1941, capturing images of city life in photos that are sometimes distant and unobtrusive, but often sharply observant and quietly funny.

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30 Found Photos of People Proudly Posing With Fishes in the 1960s

Fishing is an ancient practice that dates back to at least the beginning of the Upper Paleolithic period about 40,000 years ago, and became a popular recreational activity in the 19th century.

Since the 16th century, fishing vessels have been able to cross oceans in pursuit of fish, and since the 19th century it has been possible to use larger vessels and in some cases process the fish on board. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping.

The term fishing may be applied to catching other aquatic animals such as shellfish, cephalopods, crustaceans and echinoderms. The term is not usually applied to catching aquatic mammals, such as whales, where the term whaling is more appropriate, or to farmed fish.

These vintage photos were found by Mark Susina that captured people proudly posing with fishes in the 1960s.

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Beautiful American Women’s Hair Fashions From the 1940s

The 1940s proved to be iconic with hairstyling even though the wars at that time had a vast effect on everything. No matter the length of hair, the women of the 1940s always appeared soft and feminine as a result of their hairstyles. Hairs were very practical and easy since women didn’t have much money to spend at salons. With rolls and waves being the most common hairdos, women of the decade looked stunning at all times.

Hairstyles in the 1940s were fuller and longer than those of the 1930s and hair was cut in a rounded U-shape at the back, curving up towards the ears. There were always a lot of layers because the hair was usually worn in curls or soft waves, usually just below shoulder-length. Straight hair was simply unfashionable. To achieve the curls, girls who couldn’t afford a weekly “wash and set” at the hairdresser would pin up their wet hair in bobby pins each night to make pin-curls. 

As war rationing really began to bite, women still spent time and effort on their hairstyles, but no longer wanted lots of waves in intricate designs. Hair was worn shorter, in a practical style, still curly with a wave or two at the front. This sort of style looked good under small hats and military hats and could be hidden under turbans if the hair was dirty.

An iconic war-time hairstyle was the “Victory Roll”. The name seems to have come from the corkscrew through the air by RAF pilots before landing, if they had successfully downed an enemy plane. The hair was divided at the front and curled up and out, in a rather aerodynamic form.

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Rare and Amazing Photographs of Warsaw, Poland From the 1850s

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. The city area measures 517 km2 (200 sq mi) and comprises 18 boroughs, while the metropolitan area covers 6,100 km2 (2,355 sq mi). Warsaw is an alpha- global city, a major cultural, political and economic hub, and the country’s seat of government.

Warsaw flourished throughout the 19th century under Mayor Sokrates Starynkiewicz (1875–92), who was appointed by Alexander III. Under Starynkiewicz Warsaw saw its first water and sewer systems designed and built by the English engineer William Lindley and his son, William Heerlein Lindley, as well as the expansion and modernization of trams, street lighting, and gas infrastructure.

Between 1850 and 1882, the population grew by 134% to 383,000 as a result of rapid urbanization and industrialization. Many migrated from surrounding rural Masovian towns and villages to the city for employment opportunities. The western borough of Wola was transformed from an agricultural periphery occupied mostly by small farms and windmills to an industrial and manufacturing centre. Metallurgical, textile and glassware factories were commonplace, with chimneys dominating the westernmost skyline.

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