Life of Bugis Street, Singapore in the 1980s

In 1980, Parisian photographer Alain Soldeville visited Singapore and discovered a legion of androgynous beauties at Bugis Street. The photos can be viewed on his website. And here's a selection of some of interesting shots, as well as Soldeville's captivating description of the experience:

“In December 1980, I left Paris for a two-year trip to Asia and Australia. I had limited experience in photography. After spending a month in Bangkok, I arrived in Singapore where I checked in at a hotel located on the fourth floor of an impersonal tower. A few days later, around midnight, I headed for Bugis Street in a neighborhood of old Chinese houses from the colonial era. Within an hour, strange androgynous creatures arrived by taxi. Dressed in sexy, tight-fitting dresses or satiny pants, wearing heavy stage makeup and high heels, they took over the territory. The street seemed to belong to them and their dramatic entrance was followed by scrutinizing eyes. It appeared that most visitors were there to watch the show that had just begun.”

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Bazooka Vespa, ca. 1956

The Vespa 150 TAP (Troupes Aéro Portées) is an Italian Vespa scooter modified by creating a hole in the legshield to carry a M20 75 mm recoilless rifle.

The recoil or ‘kick’ from the rifle was counter balanced by venting propellant gases out the rear of the weapon; this eliminated the need for heavy mounts, and enabled the weapon to be fired from the Vespa frame. Due to the lack of any kind of aiming devices, the recoilless rifle was supposed to be mounted on a tripod, which was also carried by the scooter.

Primarily built for the Algerian War in the 1950s, five parachutes could carry a two-man gun crew, weapon, ammunition, and two scooters. Then the men would load the weapon on one scooter and the ammo on the other, before riding away to find their enemy. Although rumor has it that the drivers were seen more often pushing it rather than riding on it...

Anarchist Demonstration in Union Square, New York, 1914

Over 5,000 people attended the mass memorial meeting called by the Anti-Militarist League for Berg, Hanson, and Caron, the three anarchists killed in the Lexington Avenue explosion. Over 800 policemen monitored the meeting, while Berkman, Abbott, Edelsohn, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Carlo Tresca, David Sullivan and Charles Plunkett all spoke for their dead comrades. Here’s a collection of some of vintage photographs of a large anarchist rally in union Square, New York City, with Alexander Berkman addressing the crowd, on July 11, 1914.

The Ghosts in Vintage Photographs

US artist Angela Deane’s paintings on found photographs make for an intriguing series of portraits of ghostly figures – at home, at the game, even in the pool...

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Wonderful Colorama Photographs

From 1950 until 1990, Kodak’s gigantic Colorama photographs dominated the east wall of Grand Central's Main Concourse. Using what was then innovative technology to print oversize photos that measured 60 feet in length and nearly 20 feet high, these images portrayed an idealized view of American life. They promoted photography as essential for documenting leisure activities as well as capturing special family moments with beautiful, richly-colored photos.

Swimming Pool, Rochester, NY, displayed July 17-August 8, 1960. Photo by Charlie Baker © Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.

Family with Santa & tree, Brownie Super 27 camera, displayed November 19-December 17, 1962. Photo by Donald Marvin © Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.

Girl photographing roses, Jackson & Perkins Rose Gardens, Newark, New York, displayed March 3-27, 1967. Photo by Donald Marvin © Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.

Pirate’s Cove, Paradise Island, Nassau, Bahamas, diplayed January 10-31, 1966. Photo by Hank Mayer © Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.

Waterskiers, Cypress Gardens, Florida, displayed August 5-26, 1968. Photo by Hank Mayer © Eastman Kodak Co. Courtesy George Eastman House.

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Beautiful Black and White Portraits of Anouk Aimée in "Lola" (1961)

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Amazing Black and White Photographs of Life in Detroit in the 1970s

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Nostalgic Behind the Scenes Photographs From the Making of ‘Dazed and Confused’ (1993)

Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Joey Lauren Adams, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, and Rory Cochrane. The plot follows various groups of Texas teenagers during the last day of school in 1976.

When asked in an interview what he wanted to do after Slacker, Richard Linklater said “‘I want to make this teenage rock’n’roll spree.’ I knew I wanted the story to take place on one day in the spring of 1976, but at one point it was much more experimental. The whole movie took place in a car with the characters driving around listening to ZZ Top.” Lee Daniel, the director of photography, described the concept: “It would have been two shots—one of a guy putting in an eight-track of ZZ Top’s Fandango! and one of two guys driving around talking. The film would be the length of the actual album, and you’d hear each track in the background as a source.” Eventually Linklater decided to write a script “to represent different points of view”, the first draft of which took a month to complete. Universal Studios fast tracked production of Linklater’s script, jumping ahead of 30 other films which were in development at that time.

The film grossed less than $8 million at the U.S. box office. In 2002, Quentin Tarantino listed it as the 10th best film of all time in a Sight and Sound poll. It ranked third on Entertainment Weekly magazine’s list of the 50 Best High School Movies. The magazine also ranked it 10th on their “Funniest Movies of the Past 25 Years” list.

Below is a gallery of some of awesome behind the scenes photographs from the making of Dazed and Confused in 1993.

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Amazing Photographs Capture Daily Life in Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong in the 1980s

The Kowloon Walled City was a singular Hong Kong phenomenon: 33,000 people living in over 300 interconnected high-rise buildings, built without the contributions of a single architect, ungoverned by Hong Kong's safety and health regulations, covering one square city block in a densely populated neighborhood near the end of the runway at Kai Tak airport.

In collaboration with Ian Lambot, Greg Girard spent five years photographing and becoming familiar with the Walled City, its residents, and how it was organized. So seemingly compromised and anarchic on its surface, it actually worked -and to a large extent, worked well. The Walled City was torn down in 1992 but the photographs, oral histories, maps and essays in their book provide the most thorough record of daily life in a place that was a true Hong Kong original. They are updating and redesigning the book, and funding publication via Kickstarter here.

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27 Beautiful Vintage Portraits of Gaijin (non-Japanese) Geishas From the Early 20th Century

Gaijin is a Japanese word for “foreigner”, “non-Japanese”, “alien” or “outsider”. The word is composed of two kanji: gai, meaning “outside”; and jin, meaning “person.”

Here are some beautiful vintage portraits of Gaijin Geisha in Kimonos from between the 1900s and 1920s.

Believed to live for a thousand years and to inhabit the land of the immortals, the Kimono is a symbol of longevity and good fortune. Specific motifs are used to indicate virtues or attributes of the wearer, or relate to the season or occasion such as weddings and festivals where it bestows good fortune on the wearer. To Westerners the word “Kimono” is synonymous with their image of Japan.

Kimonos as we know them today have evolved greatly in terms of design, fabric and wearability. From the Nara period (710-794) until the Heian period (794-1192), Japanese people typically wore either ensembles consisting of separate upper and lower garments (trousers or skirts), or one-piece garments.

The Samurai’s everyday wear was a Kimono, usually consisting of an outer and inner layer. Normally made of silk, the quality of the Kimono depended on the Samurai’s income and status. Beneath the Kimono, the warrior wore a loincloth.

The traditional Kimono is hard to wear and is very expensive for the common person. Newer versions of Kimono have been designed from linen, rayon and polyester to cater to all seasons and help the wearer move easily. These have lesser layers and do not cost as much as the silk variety.

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A Blizzard Scene in New York, 1888

A blizzard scene in New York – Looking West on 14th Street toward Sixth Avenue, March 12, 1888.

25 Rare and Amazing Vintage Pictures of Russia from the 1880s

Throughout the last half of the nineteenth century, Russia's economy developed more slowly than did that of the major European nations to its west. Russia's population was substantially larger than those of the more developed Western countries, but the vast majority of the people lived in rural communities and engaged in relatively primitive agriculture. Industry, in general, had greater state involvement than in Western Europe, but in selected sectors it was developing with private initiative, some of it foreign.

Between 1850 and 1900, Russia's population doubled, but it remained chiefly rural well into the twentieth century. Russia's population growth rate from 1850 to 1910 was the fastest of all the major powers except for the United States. Agriculture, which was technologically underdeveloped, remained in the hands of former serfs and former state peasants, who together constituted about four-fifths of the rural population. Large estates of more than fifty square kilometers accounted for about 20 percent of all farmland, but few such estates were worked in efficient, large-scale units. Small-scale peasant farming and the growth of the rural population increased the amount of land used for agricultural development, but land was used more for gardens and fields of grain and less for grazing meadows than it had been in the past.

Below is a collection of 25 amazing vintage photographs that capture everyday life in Russia from the 1880s.

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