Ghosts of Mardi Gras Past

These photos of costumed revelers are from the Telling-Grandon scrapbook/diary, found at the LOUISiana Digital Library. It contains photographs and ephemera collected by an Evanston, Illinois group during a visit by train to the New Orleans Carnival of 1903.

The Telling-Grandon group

Anonymous Good: Eyelash Photo

A friend of mine has this totally cool black and white photo of false eyelashes hanging in his bathroom (TMI?). He found it in a warehouse that was being emptied many years ago. I presume that it was for advertising, but there really is no clue as to age, purpose, or maker. And none of that detracts even one wink from its fabulousness.

I love how the length is exaggerated with those long luxurious shadows, and how there’s only one pair that is “open.”

PHOTOS BY JONATHAN GREENBERG

PHOTOGRAPHIE Magazine

PHOTOGRAPHIE was an annual, special issue of the magazine Arts et Metiers Graphiques entirely dedicated to photography. There’s lots to read about AMG, the influential journal of all things print-related, at Modernism 101, where most of these images are from. There’s also a whole website about it at RIT.

What I particularly like about these photo annuals, aside from how beautiful they are, is that they feature no photography on the covers. The typography acts as master of ceremonies. It introduces the special guest and then gets out of the way.

Unfortunately, AMG founder Charles Peignot would definitely not approve of this post. He and his pals (like Le Corbusier, Jean Cocteau and A.M. Cassandre) formed Union des Artistes Modernes, a group "strongly against anything backward looking."


PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1947

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1938

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1932

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1930

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1931

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1933-34

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1935

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1938

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1939

PHOTOGRAPHIE, 1937

Father's Day

This first Father’s Day without my dad was strange, just as I suspected it would be. Odd how a holiday suddenly becomes ‘not applicable.’

Mom’s been sorting and clearing as she prepares to sell the house. The picture above is one I’ve never seen before, and one of the earliest of him we have. Below is a school project I did, which as unremarkable as it was, my father kept these many years—truly remarkable.

Black History Portraits

Pearl Bailey

Archie Savage

Thelma Carpenter

Billie Holiday

Inez Dickerson

Ladybird Cleveland

Carmen De Levallade

Diahann Carroll

Eartha Kitt

Alvin Ailey

I recently had the good fortune of encountering these stunning portraits by Carl Van Vechten, on the blog, Nothing is New. I was absolutely captivated when I first saw them, and I wanted to share them for Black History Month. Be sure to visit Nothing is New for regular servings of unique, historic images. Thanks Kelly!

via Beinecke Rare Book Library

Frozen in Flight

These photos of ice skaters are all from the Life magazine archive. Interesting, how shots of skaters in mid-air are rare these days. That camera work is left to TV, while still photography seems to be more about capturing an emotional moment.

I'm completely absorbed in the Olympic figure skating this year. Women's long program is Thursday night!

Barbara Ann Scott, 1947
Fashion shoot at the Rockefeller Center rink, 1940
Dick Button, 1948
Carol Lynne, 1945
Husband & wife skating team Narena Greer & Richard Norris, 1949
Carol Heiss, 1955
Dorothy Hamill, c. 1975

Dora Kallmus & Atelier d'Ora

Self portrait
My previous post (Otto Dix & Estee Lauder?), about the dancer Anita Berber, included the photo below (now removed). Why?, Well, because when I googled Anita Berber this was the photo that came up first and frequently. In other words, everybody said it was her, so it must be her. So much for “the wisdom of crowds.”

It took the “expertise of one,” to set the record straight. Playwright and painter, Susan Tammany contacted me immediately to tell me that “This is not Anita.” She also included info on the photographer of this image, Dora Kallmus, who, in fact, made many photographs of Anita Berber. So, just because most photos of Anita Berber are by Dora Kallmus, does not mean that most of Dora Kallmus' photos of dancers are Anita Berber. I went back to the images and, indeed, there is a spectrum of idents on this photo. From a blogger: “Anita Berber, duh” to Getty Images: “Dancer (presumable Anita Berber),” to The Tate: Anonymous photograph of a dancer taken at the studio of Madame d'Ora (Dora Philippine Kallmus) in Vienna (1923). Gelatin silver print

The facts: Dora Kallmus? Yes. Dancer? Yes. Gorgeous photo? Yes. Anita Berber? Maybe, maybe not.

Dora Philippine Kallmus (1881 – 1963), despite being denied access to technical training in photography (for being female), ran the highly successful photo studio Atelier d’Ora.

Madame d’Ora’s vibrant portraits of twentieth-century artists and intellectuals remain important testaments to European cultural life at the turn of the century and beyond. Not only did her high quality photographs of well-known figures such as Josephine Baker (1906–1975), Karl Kraus (1874–1936), Arthur Schnitzler (1862–1931) and Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) receive international acclaim, but her studios in Vienna and Paris also became fashionable meeting places for the cultural and intellectual elite. D’Ora’s achievements also paved the way for other European women’s careers in photography…” (Lisa Silverman, Jewish Women’s Archive)

Some Dora Kallmus and Atelier d’Ora photos of dancers …

Mary Wigman

Anna Pavlova
Josephine Baker
Demon Machine
Anita Berber

…and other artists of note
Gustav Klimt, Maurice Chevalier, Pablo Casals
Colette, Tamara Lempicka