vintage nyc: summer 1969

Life magazine has a pretty cool gallery on their website of photos from their 1969 fashion spread, That Young New York Look. It showcases photos of young New Yorkers around the city in the Summer of 1969. It's full of fantastic outfit inspiration and it's quite amazing how current many of the photos look. Almost all of them seem like they could have been taken today (well, not today. It's still kind of cold. Maybe last Summer?)

photos from Life

Bridge & Burn | Fall 2014

The Fall 2014 lookbook for Portland based Bridge & Burn has been making the rounds through the blogoshere. It was shot in Detroit Lake in Oregon and  the emphasis is as much on the location as it is on the beautiful and practical outdoorsy clothes. The scenery is so gorgeous that it just makes me want to put on a flannel and hop a plane to Oregon immediately. 

photographer spotlight: garry winogrand

Apparently it's a big week for vintage photos on the blog. 

Out of all of the different types of photography (and art in general) street photography is definitely my favorite. I love being able to find beauty in everyday, mundane things and Garry Winogrand's photos do just that. Garry Winogrand grew up in the Bronx and work as a photographer throughout the 1960s and 1970s. His work depicted everyday American life mostly in New York City, but also across the country in place like California and Texas. He captured scenes of everything, from a day at the beach to peace protest to high society parties, with a sense of humor and an artistic vision. 

Garry Winogrand has been one of my favorite photographers and main inspirations ever since I began to learn about photography back in collage. I'm still trying to get my hands on a copy of his Women are Beautiful book! (They are all, like, $1,000 though!)  I'm sure I'll be posting more of his photos on the blog because there are just so many that I love.

(this is literally my favorite photo in all of photography)

photos from here

better late than never

So, these photos are kind of misleading and also ridiculous, because I think I took these sometime in February and I'm just getting around to posing them now. This is how lazy I am. Especially during the Winter, I just do not want to do anything but binge watch Netflix. But, I swear, I have been wearing cute outfits! I'm just to lazy to document them. I'm going to try to be more productive this Spring, hence me finally posting these photos. 

These photos were taken on a particularly gorgeous February day in Philadelphia, so they look like them could have been taken now. The dress is a new, vintage one that I got from Auraria. I'm kind of obsessed with the print and it's so comfortable, even though it's not particularly flattering. I'm really trying to move away from the idea that everything we wear needs to be flattering. I think that people should just wear what they like. It's so limiting to only pick out clothing that is a certain shape. Of course I still want to look nice because I'm a human woman, but I'm just trying no to let that limit me as much. I'm also wearing my new Toms wedges that I got as a Christmas present. They are seriously the most comfortable heels I've ever had in my life.

coat: H&M via Crossroads Trading | dress: vintage/Auraria | cardigan: JCrew via Greene Street Consignment | wedges: Toms

Documerica

I found out about the Documerica set on the US National Archives Flickr site on Liebemarlene and it is really fantastic. In the 1970s, the EPA sent out about 70 freelance photographers to "photographically document subjects of environmental concern," much like the Farm Security Administration did durning the Great Depression. Many of the photographers, who were well know at the time, took this direction loosely and created some very beautiful and artistic depictions of everything from inner city pollution to wildlife in the Alaskan wilderness to everyday small town life. 

Most of the photographers, I haven't heard of, so scrolling through the archives was a great way to find out about some artists. There were amazing shots of northern wilderness and western deserts, but I was really drawn to the gritty New York City photos (surprise, surprise). I especially like the work of Erik Calonius, who shot New York, but also in California and rural Ohio. I'm sure there will be more posts on this series and I definitely want to do some research on these photographers.

vintage philadelphia

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I really want to continue to do posts on vintage city photos. I love looking a old photos of places that I know and love and seeing how much they've changed over the years. It feels like you're stepping back in time.  

Since my boyfriend lives in Philadelphia, I'm there about twice a month. Traveling from New York to Philadelphia is kind of like going down the block for me at this point. I'm there so much and was even living there for a while, that it's starting to feel a bit like a second home to me.  So, it fell right to not only post vintage photos of New York, but Philadelphia as well.

Philadelphia, 1973

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Philadelphia, 1960

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Philadelphia, 1960s

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Philadelphia, 1960s

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Philadelphia, 1958

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mixtape monday

pop from jesaspen on 8tracks Radio.

Here's a 60s pop mix to celebrate the start of spring. (finally!)

*photo by me