Flashbak
Selling Sex in Soho in the 1980s
You can buy sex by the minute. Which is why what are euphemistically called ‘adult’ videos sold so...
2 weeks ago
You can buy sex by the minute. Which is why what are euphemistically called ‘adult’ videos sold so well before the internet made them free to air. London’s Soho was once a centre of the trade in pornographic films on VHS, and Betamax for kinkier onanists. Seedy Soho has long been...
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Vintage Japanese Boomboxes from the 1980s
Junichi Matsuzaki collects Japanese boomboxes from the 1980s. At Design Underground Shibuya-Base in...
2 weeks ago
Junichi Matsuzaki collects Japanese boomboxes from the 1980s. At Design Underground Shibuya-Base in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, he sells new and used cassette tapes. Matsuzaki sees cassettes as a retro fashion that produces great analog sound. Unlike downloads, you actually own the...
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14 Neglected Beatles’ Gems
Now that The Beatles catalogue has been re-mastered in mono and stereo, attention is once again...
4 days ago
Now that The Beatles catalogue has been re-mastered in mono and stereo, attention is once again focussed on The Beatles' masterpieces...
The post 14 Neglected Beatles’ Gems appeared first on Flashbak.
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The Beauty of Vintage Czeckosolvakian Record Sleeves
The Supraphon record label opened in Czechoslovakia in 1932, selling work by the country’s artists...
2 days ago
The Supraphon record label opened in Czechoslovakia in 1932, selling work by the country’s artists produced for export by the Ultraphon company. Post World War II, Ultraphon was nationalised and changed its name to Gramofonové závody. In 1961 the name was changed to Gramofonové...
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Tina Turner Sizzles For Playboy And The Rolling Stones in 1969
On 3 December 1969, The Sensational Ike And Tina Turner Revue appeared on the Hugh Hefner’s Playboy...
a week ago
On 3 December 1969, The Sensational Ike And Tina Turner Revue appeared on the Hugh Hefner’s Playboy After Dark TV show. They performed I Want To Take You Higher, Come Together, Proud Mary and Honky Tonk Woman. Hosted by Hefner, the show was aired from 1969 to 1970. It was...
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London Garages In The 1980s And 90s
Many of London’s garages have now gone. Peter Marshall captured a few on camera as he strolled about...
a month ago
Many of London’s garages have now gone. Peter Marshall captured a few on camera as he strolled about the city in the 1980s and 90s. The Romans founded London in 43 AD, and brought roads with them. As the hub of Roman Britain, straight road suited to invading marching up and...
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Sol LeWitt: Variations of Incomplete Cubes, 1974
“The idea becomes a machine that makes the art” – Sol Lewitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, 1967 ...
a week ago
“The idea becomes a machine that makes the art” – Sol Lewitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, 1967 In his Variations of Incomplete Cubes (1974), American artist Sol Lewitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) looked at seriality and variation through a collection of 122 frame...
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Artists’ Illustrated Love Letters from the Archives
Reading other people’s love letters might be an act of voyeurism. These are personal communications...
2 weeks ago
Reading other people’s love letters might be an act of voyeurism. These are personal communications between two beating hearts. Should we look? Of course we should. The lives of others is always fascinating. Pulled from the collections of the Archives of American Art, the...
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Francesca Woodman’s Recipe for Frizzy Omelette – Rome, 1978
Francesca Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) was an American photographer best known for her...
a month ago
Francesca Woodman (April 3, 1958 – January 19, 1981) was an American photographer best known for her black and white pictures featuring either herself or female models. Many of her photographs show the subjects blurred, merging with their surroundings, or whose faces are...
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Richard and Mildred Loving: The Husband and Wife Whose Marriage Changed America
On July 11, 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving were pulled from their bed and arrested. The newlyweds...
2 weeks ago
On July 11, 1958, Richard and Mildred Loving were pulled from their bed and arrested. The newlyweds were accused of “miscegenation”, a crime under Virginia law and each sentenced to a year in prison, with the sentence suspended on condition that the couple leave Virginia and not...
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Georgia O’Keeffe Photographs – Seeing Infinity
“It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things.” –...
3 weeks ago
“It is only by selection, by elimination, by emphasis that we get at the real meaning of things.” – Georgia O’Keeffe The show Georgia O’Keeffe, Photographer at the Cincinnati Art Museum features around 100 of the artist’s photographs, many taken of her New Mexico home and the...
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Strangely Familiar: Visitors’ Views of Britain Since The 1930s
To see yourself as others see you is a gift. These pictures by international photographers reflect...
2 weeks ago
To see yourself as others see you is a gift. These pictures by international photographers reflect how they saw the place on visits to Britain since the 1930s. As the title of the show at London’s Barbican tells it, Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International...
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Maria Reiche and the Mystery of the Nazca Lines
“If I had a hundred lifetimes, I would have given them to Nazca. And if I had to make a thousand...
a week ago
“If I had a hundred lifetimes, I would have given them to Nazca. And if I had to make a thousand sacrifices, I would have made them, if for Nazca.” – Maria Reiche Maria Reiche (15 May 1903 – 8 June 1998) was the ‘Lady of the Lines’. The German-born Peruvian mathematician,...
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Paul Sougy : Luminous Illustrations Of Animals – c. 1952
A whole back we looked at Paul Sougy’s mid-Century scientific illustrations of the human body....
a month ago
A whole back we looked at Paul Sougy’s mid-Century scientific illustrations of the human body. Designed as large pull down charts for French classroom walls, Sougy also illustrated animals and plants. The Library at Artois University features a large collection of his work. But...
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Found Photos of People And Their Television Sets
In the pre-internet mid-Century, owning a TV set was a source of pride. It connected you to...
a month ago
In the pre-internet mid-Century, owning a TV set was a source of pride. It connected you to knowledge presented by people who seemed too big to be on it – not by girth, rather by style and more keenly substance. And it filled a corner in the living room and duly turned up in...
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How Child Refugees Drew The Spanish Civil War in 1936
Housed at the Southworth Spanish Civil War Collection are over 600 drawings made during the Spanish...
a week ago
Housed at the Southworth Spanish Civil War Collection are over 600 drawings made during the Spanish Civil War by Spanish school children, both in Spain and in refugee centres in France. Made from pencil, crayon, ink, and watercolours, the drawings were collected by the Spanish...
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27 Fantastic Vintage Photos of Birds
Birds sing because they enjoy singing. The more they do it, the better at it they get. And birds are...
3 weeks ago
Birds sing because they enjoy singing. The more they do it, the better at it they get. And birds are great singers. It’s one of the reasons people like them as pets. In this gallery of photos from the collection of Robert E. Jackson, we see people with birds. As ever, let’s...
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The Cage – The Boovie Visual-Novel by Martin Vaughn-James, 1975
British artist Martin Vaughn-James (December 5, 1943 – July 3, 2009) is arguably best remembered for...
3 weeks ago
British artist Martin Vaughn-James (December 5, 1943 – July 3, 2009) is arguably best remembered for a series of graphic novels he published while living in Toronto and Montreal in the 1970s: Elephant (1970), The Projector (1971), The Park (1972) and The Cage (1975) – works that...
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BLADE, King of Graffiti: On The Streets of NYC 1972-1984
“Before New York City made graffiti world famous, BLADE was one of the people who made it famous in...
5 days ago
“Before New York City made graffiti world famous, BLADE was one of the people who made it famous in New York.” – Roger Gastman BLADE (nee Steven Ogburn; January 23rd, 1957) tagged his first train in New York city when Hondo 1 took him to Baychester layup in the Bronx to paint...
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In Your Face: Mark Cohen’s Dark Knees
“I would have loved to have been like Dorothea Lange – socially concerned. But when I was trapped in...
2 weeks ago
“I would have loved to have been like Dorothea Lange – socially concerned. But when I was trapped in Wilkes-Barre for the next fifty years, I became a surrealist.” – Mark Cohen Mark Cohen’s Dark Knees photo book continues his association with Wilkes-Barre, the small...
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The Art of Portugal Fish Cans
November 15 is the Portuguese National Day of Canned Fish. In June, Lisbon hosts a raucous Sardine...
6 days ago
November 15 is the Portuguese National Day of Canned Fish. In June, Lisbon hosts a raucous Sardine Festival, an event dedicated to the city’s patron saint, St. Anthony. The county has a rich history with fish, especially those in tins. The first Portuguese company to sell...
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The First Photograph of People Enjoying a Drink – An Edinburgh Pub, 1843
Robert Adamson (26 April 1821 – 14 January 1848) was a Scottish chemist and pioneer photographer who...
a month ago
Robert Adamson (26 April 1821 – 14 January 1848) was a Scottish chemist and pioneer photographer who together with painter David Octavius Hill (20 May 1802 – 17 May 1870) in 1843 – just four years after the invention of photography had been announced – formed Hill & Adamson, a...
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Special Instructions To Players – 1898
In 1898, Major League Baseball teams received the following memo. John Brush (June 15, 1845 –...
4 weeks ago
In 1898, Major League Baseball teams received the following memo. John Brush (June 15, 1845 – November 26, 1912), an American baseball executive and later principal owner of the New York Giants franchise in Major League Baseball wanted to rid the sport of filthy language. The...
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People on the Streets of New York City – 1970s, 80s, 90s
“I have always been more interested in the subtle and familiar moments of everyday life, not the big...
a month ago
“I have always been more interested in the subtle and familiar moments of everyday life, not the big news stories. They are telling in different ways and just as powerful. Nothing was scripted but played out right before me.” – Carrie Boretz Carrie Boretzs show us New York City...
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Photographs of A Coronation Street Party in 1953
On 2 June 1953, photographer John Chillingworth was on Morpeth Street in London’s Bethnal Green. The...
3 weeks ago
On 2 June 1953, photographer John Chillingworth was on Morpeth Street in London’s Bethnal Green. The residents of this road in the East End were out in force. They’d come to enjoy themselves. They had good reason to. Not long enough before, the Germans had bombed the area. The...
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30 Fabulous Vintage Photos of Dogs
In 2020, we shared Libby Hall’s photography collection of people and their Jack Russell terriers....
4 weeks ago
In 2020, we shared Libby Hall’s photography collection of people and their Jack Russell terriers. Between 1966 and 2008, native New Yorker Libby Hall collected over 900 photographs of dogs circa 1850 to 1940. You might have seen them in her five books? Libby donated her...
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The Industrial Beauty of Vintage Gas Pumps
On the outskirts of Milan, Italy, the Fisogni museum is dedicated to petrol / gas station pumps and...
a month ago
On the outskirts of Milan, Italy, the Fisogni museum is dedicated to petrol / gas station pumps and ephemera. The pumps are gorgeous. We like things with buttons, dials. Paint them in vivid colours and decorate them with fonts designed by leading graphic designers, and you’ve got...
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A Medieval Archbishop’s Graphic Poems Of Jesus and The Cross (810-814)
Rabanus Maurus (also called Hrabanus Magnentius), (born c. 780, Mainz, Franconia—died Feb. 4, 856,...
a month ago
Rabanus Maurus (also called Hrabanus Magnentius), (born c. 780, Mainz, Franconia—died Feb. 4, 856, Winkel),) was an eniment teacher, Benedictine abbot, archbishop of Mainz and encyclopedist. Among a rich body of work, (treatises, military texts and missives), he wrote De laudibus...
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See The Gilded Cage and Other Decorations for Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation – 1953
Hugh Casson’s (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) role as Consultant Architect for street decorations in...
3 weeks ago
Hugh Casson’s (23 May 1910 – 15 August 1999) role as Consultant Architect for street decorations in Westminster to mark the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II on 2 June 1953 saw him create designs in tune with the streets they would adorn. His mantra was: “The Queen will have...
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Photographs of a Tourist’s Trip to Africa in August 1970
In August 1970, Allan Hailstone left London for holiday in Cape Town, Cairo, Nairobi, Pretoria,...
a month ago
In August 1970, Allan Hailstone left London for holiday in Cape Town, Cairo, Nairobi, Pretoria, Johannesburg and Salisbury in Rhodesia (now Harare in Zimbabwe). There were no UK consular links in Rhodesia. The only air link to it was from apartheid South Africa so he had to...
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Truman Capote In Brooklyn – A Photo Story from 1959
“I live in Brooklyn. By choice” – Truman Capote Truman Capote (1924–1984) put Brooklyn, New...
3 weeks ago
“I live in Brooklyn. By choice” – Truman Capote Truman Capote (1924–1984) put Brooklyn, New York, on the literary map when in 1959 he wrote the essay Brooklyn Heights, a Personal Memoir about his adopted home neighbourhood for Holiday magazine. David Attie (1920–1982) was...
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Exercise Your Brain With An Antilibrary Of Unread Books And Why Umberto Eco Kept One
“Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free. A great library is freedom” – Ursula K. Le Guin Ever...
a month ago
“Knowledge sets us free, art sets us free. A great library is freedom” – Ursula K. Le Guin Ever buy a book and not read it? The Japanese have a word for amassing books and leaving them unread. It’s tsundoku (積ん読), which literally means reading pile (積ん読). It’s no bad thing to...
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Guerrilla Girls Posters in the 1980s – The Art Of Shaming The System
The Guerrilla Girls movement against sexism and racism in the art world began in 1984. The Museum of...
a month ago
The Guerrilla Girls movement against sexism and racism in the art world began in 1984. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City was showing an International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture. Of the group show’s 165 featured artists, just 13 were women. Outraged by the...
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Highlights From The Artist Book Collection at the John F Flaxman Library – 1960-Present Day
Housed at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Library & Special Collections, The Joan Flasch...
a month ago
Housed at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago Library & Special Collections, The Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection (JFABC) features over 12,000 artists’ books, zines, multiples, video and audio recordings, digital works, periodicals, and other intimate works of art and...
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Photos of London’s Cinemas in the 1980s
They don’t make them like they used to. Not only the films, but the cinemas, too. London was once...
a month ago
They don’t make them like they used to. Not only the films, but the cinemas, too. London was once replete with picture palaces built in Deco and neo-classic fashion in successful bids to stand out on the high street, with many buildings that once housed them like the Brixton...
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Bethnal Green In Colour – 1986-1993
“Don’t tell them where you live” – Esther Cohen to her daughter Sadie, Brady Street Dwellings,...
a month ago
“Don’t tell them where you live” – Esther Cohen to her daughter Sadie, Brady Street Dwellings, Bethnal Green, East London, c. 1908 Brady Street in Whitechapel, East London, runs from Whitechapel Road in the south to Three Colts Lane, near Bethnal Green Tube station, in the...
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First Men To The Moon by Rocketeer Wernher von Braun – 1960
As the space race heated up, in 1960 rocketeer Wernher von Braun (23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977)...
a month ago
As the space race heated up, in 1960 rocketeer Wernher von Braun (23 March 1912 – 16 June 1977) published First Men To The Moon, a fictional book based on two astronauts of the future bound for the Moon. As the book’s dedication page notes: “To Iris and Margrit [von Braun’s...
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I Was a Mid-Century Look Away Knitting Pattern Model
A while back we introduced readers to the University of Southhampton’s online Knitting Reference...
a month ago
A while back we introduced readers to the University of Southhampton’s online Knitting Reference Library, a treasure trove of knitting patterns, knitting journals, ‘stitchionaries’, knitting magazines and knitting books from 1849 to the present day. But before you get to the...
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War in America: The Newark Riots of 1967
“Wounded by gunshot. Joe Bass Jr., 12, lies in a Newark Street” – Newark, New Jersey, July 1967 “To...
11 hours ago
“Wounded by gunshot. Joe Bass Jr., 12, lies in a Newark Street” – Newark, New Jersey, July 1967 “To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage, almost all the time” – James Baldwin In July 1967 America was at war with itself. The … Continue...
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The Beauty of Vintage Czechoslovakian Record Sleeves
The Supraphon record label opened in Czechoslovakia in 1932, selling work by the country’s artists...
2 days ago
The Supraphon record label opened in Czechoslovakia in 1932, selling work by the country’s artists produced for export by the Ultraphon company. Post World War II, Ultraphon was nationalised and changed its name to Gramofonové závody. In 1961 the name was changed to Gramofonové...
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