Allan Barnes + Ulorin Vex
Allan Barnes makes tintypes, a photographic process from the late 19th century. These are some images via the wet-plate collodion process with my favorite model, the gorgeous Ulorin Vex, as the subject.
There’s a post on Allan Barnes’ tintypes on the Coilhouse blog over here. Below the cut are just a couple more of his photos that I like:
Tags: art nudes, black and white, tintypes, ulorin vex, vintage, vintage undergarments
Beautiful imaginary portraits by Travis Louie
Charlotte of the Woods
The Ghost of Laura from the Reeds
Sarah and Emmett
The StranglerThese are paintings, though they may look like hyperrealistic, gorgeously detailed drawings. Travis Louie makes imaginary formal vintage portraits of odd and surreal beings, monsters, and demure ladies from the Victorian and Edwardian periods. Duality/morphing is a dominant theme; many of his creatures are ungodly hybrids with human, animal, and monster parts or features. They are quirky rather than menacing. Their deformity is more humorous than grotesque. But the pieces that I like best are just depictions of women with a surreal atmosphere and a haunting, deep beauty, such as the above.
See more of his work here.
Tags: sepia, surreal, travis louie, victorian, vintage
The Self-Portraiture of Kristamas Klousch
I love the work of self-portraitist Kristamas Klousch. It’s fascinating, brilliant, and ever-changing. Combining instant film and digital techniques, she creates images that express a myriad of facets of, revealing and yet eluding the subject of the photographs, her “self.” What results is intensely beautiful, haunting, and dreamy. In the mini-bio on her site, she says, “Kristamas Klousch is a strange little wolfgirl, residing deep in the forests & cities of Canada.” She has also been described as “at once wild forest creature, fetish vixen, tousled witch, Lolita, courtesan, silent movie vamp, and voodoo priestess.” One of her pictures is on the cover of the current issue of Coilhouse Magazine.
Tags: grainy, kristamas klousch, self-portraits, vintage
Asta Nielsen: Fleur du Mal
Asta Nielsen is another one of those piquant silent film actors who intrigue me. A sort of dark flower, she has a very striking, iconic image, with a bone-white face, heavily contrasting huge dark eyes, and whimsical, rather mercurial expressions. Her features and the positioning of her body in stills (her look in 1921′s Hamlet!) I think give her almost a spooky appearance, and also a somehow modern look, as though she belongs more walking down the street around where I live than on the long-dead, silent screen. Now largely unknown, she was one of the most popular actresses of the 1910s and one of the first stars of the silver screen.
Born in 1881, she was a Danish actress who played in over 70 films, almost all of which were made in Germany. She was known for portraying passionate women caught in tragedy, and for the erotic quality of her performances. She brought a more subtle, naturalistic, and minimalistic acting style to cinema, in contrast to many silent actors who used theatricality – much like my beloved Louise Brooks did later on in the late ’20s. She also played Lulu in the 1923 adaptation of the Wedekind play, Erdgeist (“Earth Spirit”), which role Louise Brooks was to play in 1928 in Pabst’s Die Büchse der Pandora.
“‘Asta Nielsen’ means the power to speak of pathos, to see pain, and to find the middle path between Baudelaire’s flower of evil and the sick rose of which Blake sang.”
- M. S. FonsecaHere are a few pictures of Asta below:
Tags: 1910s, 1920s, asta nielsen, flappers, silent films, vintage
Vintage Image of the Day
via mothmilkTags: vintage, vintage undergarments
“Metropolis”-Inspired Fashion Editorial
I love the 1928 silent science fiction/German Expressionist film Metropolis. Check out this Metropolis-themed shoot from Vogue Germany that was posted over on Haute Macabre:
Tags: 1920s, fashion editorial, german expressionism, metropolis, robots, sci-fi, silent films, vintage
Danse Macabre
I love this image from the series Invitation à la danse by Sølve Sundsbø.
Tags: fashion editorial, ghosts, vintage
Vintage Beauties
A couple of beautiful portraits of Ziegfeld girls (via Liebemarlene):
Tags: 1920s, vintage, ziegfeld follies
Dolls and Gals: The Art of Caryn Drexl
Caryn Drexl is a remarkable and original experimental photographer based in Palm Coast, Florida. Her photography is conceptual and expressive, and explores themes of innocence, femininity, motherhood, and sexuality. It also has a vintage aspect/aesthetic. Teacups, baby dolls, divested braids of hair (and hair in general), things in models’ mouths are all motifs. Many of her photographs feature her as the subject.
Tea TimeTags: 1920s, caryn drexl, dolls, femininity, hair, teacups, victorian, vintage
3 Style Icons
I guess they’re kind of a holy trinity for me.
What I admire about them is their ability to create an image for themselves, to forge and strike a visual identity from the inert mass that flares for a pretty near eternal instant.
Descriptor: Vintage VixenMmm, Dita. What I love about the burlesque queen is that she’s always impeccably dressed, and preserves the glamor of the golden age of Hollywood while putting her own twist on it. Her sense of fashion is amazing. She has a very distinctive, consistent style, which is complete and cohesive. She goes for the elegant and glamorous side of retro rather than the kitschy. And she does it through and through. She doesn’t dress casually even to go to the supermarket. With her signature black curls, vividly red lips, and lily-white face, she can be dark, bold, vampish, yet she’s feminine, delicate, always elegant, and sometimes sort of fluffy. She infuses the more mundane present with some of the fascinating and voluptuous glamor and the tightly-controlled, very put-together beauty of the ’40s and ’50s. I think Dita is a perfect example of self-transformation and creating beauty through unique style. Nothing beats her retro look of wickedly defined, bright red lips, jet-black sculpted hair, and clear white skin. Dita’s book, Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese, is gorgeous and a really fun read.
Descriptor: Experimental EpidemicThe multitalented Destroyx AKA Amelia Arsenic, vocalist for industrial/alternative band Angelspit, is another one of my style heroines. Her blog, www.destroyx.com, is all kinds of goodness. Her ability to style and adorn herself absolutely blows my mind. She combines cyber, fetish, gothic, and retro looks with daring, elegance, and innovation, to create an edgy, sophisticated, and utterly unforgettable image. Even though she takes elements from so many different styles, I think that above all, her style is really only hers and one of a kind. I love the complexity, eclecticism, elaborate accessorizing, and layering that go into her outfits. She is a makeup guru. Her looks are bold, gorgeous, and original. She represents the pinnacle for me of achieving interesting effects through makeup and styling – becoming something more than just yourself visually. Angelspit’s got amazing visual design and aesthetics with her influence, and Destroyx and ZooG (the other member of Angelspit) make a powerful creative duo.
Descriptor: Wayward Victorian Girl/Insane Asylum InmateEmilie Autumn is a quirky solo musician who makes self-styled “Victoriandustrial” music. She has a lovely style all her own, which is a kind of bastardized-era, feminine, torn, tattered, wispy, layered, ribbony, very pink-themed goth look. Her hair is divine, a very beautiful shade of pink and/or red. Aside from the Victorian influences, there are fey influences and influences from the Elizabethan period, which show in her music as well. Her style is light, ethereal, and fairy-like, as well as grungier girl-punk with the requisite studded cuffs and tattered fishnets. Bloodstains, hearts, and teatime are recurring elements. Emilie has an incredible ability to create an image, and this can be seen in all the artwork, design, extra features, and images on her Opheliac album – a testament to her creativity and styling genius. She is charming, alluring, and promises to take you beyond the mundane, into a secret world of melodramatic madnesses, anachronisms, oppression, and trauma. Her whole aesthetic concept revolves around the “Asylum.” Her style is very coherent, but has lots of variety and potential. Her very basic and most replicable look is something like a “dirty”/tattered white tank top with a heart patch, or a tea-stained corset, with bloomers, red-and-white stripey stockings/asymmetrical legwear, and of course, her heart makeup.
Tags: 1940s, 1950s, avant-garde, destroyx, dita von teese, emilie autumn, insane asylum aesthetic, latex, retro, victorian, vintage
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