Photography Friday: Paris Was A Funfair

All images by Frank Bohbot, freelance French photographer with an exquisite talent

for taking a cinematographic inspiring shot of even abandoned train stations or theatres.

Vintage Photography: Marianne Breslauer

If you love photography and you feel melancholic at your most while you flick through

black and white pictures, I think you should check Marianne Breslauer's work.

Born in Berlin, she admired portrait photographers such as Frieda Reiss and André Kertész, but she always saw her future as a photographic reporter. She travelled to Paris and was Man Ray's pupil in 1929, in 1934 her photos were already being published in many leading German magazines. That same year, her photo Schoolgirls won the "Photo of the Year" award in Paris.

Marianne always confronted the anti-Semitic practices, that's why her employers wanted her to publish

her photos under a pseudonym.. As the strong woman she was, she refused to and decided to emigrate to Amsterdam, where she met her future husband, the art dealer Walter Feilchenfeldt. He was a brave soul too, in defense of the arts and the freedom. Walter had previously left Germany after seeing Nazis break up an auction of modern art. After the war, the couple set up an art business specializing in French paintings and 19th-century art.

 Her pictures release have a candid but fierce manner. Delicate, stylish and strong women who pass on a story, the story of their personal lives amidst the virulent time they had to live through.

  

Lips As Pink As Cadillacs

Inspiration: Stephen Shore photography

Leather Lace-up Shoes: Topshop

T-Shirt, Trousers and Batman Ring: Romwe

Belt: Dorothy Perkins

Get the look: Teddy Girl of the 50's

The British Teddy Boys are a subculture formed by 50s rock ‘n roll dandies in long jackets and creepers. They were the first youth group in England to differentiate themselves as teenagers, helping create a youth market.

But parallel to this, there was a whole subculture of Teddy Girls (also knows as Judies).

They dressed much like their male counterparts, sporting short hair, pants, sharply cut suit jackets and flat shoes. Their choice of clothes wasn’t only for aesthetic effect: these girls were collectively rejecting post-war austerity.

They were young working-class women, often from Irish immigrant families who had settled in the poorer districts of London - Walthamstow, Poplar and North Kensington.

They would typically leave school at the age of 14 or 15, and work in factories or offices. Teddy Girls spent much of their free time buying or making their trademark clothes.

It was a head-turning, fastidious style from the fashion houses, which had launched haute-couture clothing lines recalling the Edwardian era.

 

Get some inspiration with these Ken Russell's pictures. In 1955, this photographer created a series called The Last of the Teddy Girls, which featured photographs taken against the war-torn backdrop of London’s East End.

These quiet portraits -a direct contrast to Russell’s later bombastic directorial style (Women in Love, The Devils, The Boyfriend and The Who’s rock opera Tommy)- are an unexpected and exceptional historical record of cool.

"They document both the attitude and innocence of 1950′s youth and are an embodiment of the rebellious nature that Russell possessed throughout his life."

 

Don't forget to pair all of it with the proper attitude!

[sources: 1 2 3 4]

Sitting On Top Of The World

Billy Rood portraits Grace Hartzel and Katrina Hoerning.

Furs, red lipstick, windswept hair and the city from day to night at their feet.

Triptychs of Strangers

Triptychs of Strangers is a continuing photo­graphic series by Adde Adesokan, where the goal is to “meet total strangers - get to know them - take three personality-matching body shots - make them one".

The Analog Lover

Thing that attired my attention the most about this project is, not only the great pictures he takes and the original triptych format, but the possibility of knowing more about the person who is portrayed.

Adde talks to all the people he stops, conversates with them.

The Hungry Typograph                    ///         The Sunday Faced Cupholder

So the result is not just a pretty picture of someone with great style, it's a portrait, an impression of the individual and the situation the pictures were taken in.

They make it easier to imagine them, their life or their personality, even their story.

The Prevented Smoker                   ///                          The ColorMatched

 In this post you can see some of my favourite ones.

Don't forget to visit the Flickr Site or the Official Website

The Grieving Sailor              ///                            The Player


Every triptych features a description "About the Shot" and another one "About The Stranger"
[If you click on each picture title you'll see the original picture and its description]

The Kharise Francis herself            ///             The Ageless Sunday Lady

France Got Talent               ///                         The Cyclist 


Photo credit: © Adde Adesokan 

"Childhood Is Like a Loaded Gun"

Just got back from my holidays. While I get used to normality again and still try to keep enjoying summer, I leave you some pictures from Latvian photographer Ilze Vanaga;

which I found suiting for my mood these days.

 

Hope you like them!

 

 

Glass Ceiling

So today isn't about a beautiful editorial.

Though these pictures are an impressive example of photography, there's a story and a reason under them.

They were taken by American photographer Jill Greenberg, whose work and career has focused intermittently on feminist issues.

 They come from a commercial shoot Greenberg was asked to make for the U.S. Olympic Synchronized Swim Team in which the professional athletes and dancers had to swim in high heels, hindering their ability and making them struggle with ambiguous movements and rush for the surface.

 " The result is a sadly relevant series of shots depicting women struggling to keep head above water in a context defined by the constraints pressed upon them by others. "

 It's great that a beautiful fine art has such a powerful reason behind it, denouncing the absurdity of what sometimes women are pushed to be or appear like.

If you're interested in reading the artist's statement about this series, click here