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Category / How to start a subculture

The Real-Life Waterworld Project

Remember that Kevin Costner movie from the 90s, Waterworld, ‘the most expensive film ever made’, that everyone hated? Well it’s kinda one of my favourite movies (ever). And when I stumbled upon these wild photographs by Tod Seelie, needless to say I got pretty excited. A real-life waterworld, just like the floating islands and make-shift sea…

The Holiday Party at Studio 54 Got a Little Out of Hand

Tod Papageorge was not your average lingering Studio 54 paparazzi, in fact, he spent three decades as a Masters professor and director of photography at Yale. Time magazine calls his photographs of bleary-eyed disco queens as “something akin to poetry“. I can’t decide if his poetry makes me feel uncomfortable and guilty for looking, or naïve and prude for thinking…

Fred and Myrtle’s Shell House

Fred and Myrtle Flutey are arguably New Zealand’s most beloved couple, best-known collectors, and are certified local celebrities. On top of it all, they were also warm and generous members of their community who loved sharing their passions with all who were interested. Over 30 odd years, more than one million people have passed through…

Big Pimping at Yale’s Pipe Smoking Contest, 1959

I dug this one out of the LIFE Archives today, simply labelled “pipe smoking contest”. Between the Ivy League pimp coats, tweed jackets and collegiate fonts in the background, I had some pretty good clues as to where this might have taken place. A quick Google later and I found myself on Yale’s alumni magazine, reading an article submitted…

Cancel Your Plans, Start a Fashion Comeback with Crocheted Can Apparel

“Nice enough for an evening out but still casual enough for that weekend get away,” promises a 1975 pamphlet featuring a variety of special crochet patterns using aluminum cans. Just when you thought your personal style was getting a little tiresome– Messy Nessy swoops in with the perfect seventies style comeback to save the day… But you…

Bowling with Mr. President beneath the White House

If you’ve ever seen The Big Lebowski, you’ll recognise this photograph of President Richard Nixon bowling, which infamously loomed over the Dudes tiki bar in the cult Coen brothers film. It is in fact a real photograph of Nixon and as I recently discovered, in 1969 the former President added his own secret one-lane bowling alley in…

Stop Everything, the Wes Anderson inspired Luggage Collection is Here

Seriously though, I don’t know why this took so long to happen. Ever since I first saw Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited and laid eyes on that beautiful luggage set that traveled through India with the Whitman brothers and almost stole the show, I’ve been yearning for a brown leather carry on with playful safari animals…

Stop Everything, Allow Your Inner Child to Enjoy these Adorable Felt Sculptures

Nope, there was absolutely nothing that was going to stop me from dedicating an entire post to these soul-wrenchingly adorable little fluffy felt sculptures. I don’t know about you, but me and my inner child really needed this today. We’re looking at the work of Cat Rabbit, the creation of a Melbourne-based textile artist who’s…

The Heavy Metal Subculture of Botswana, Africa

The heavy metal cowboy get-ups sported by Dennis Hopper in Easy Rider and Mel Gibson in Mad Max are probably best left somewhere in the 1980s. But in Sub-Saharan Africa, the art of dressing like you’ve just stepped out of a Metallica concert is still very much alive. South African photographer Franck Marshall found the unlikely subculture in the…

An Insider’s Guide to the Unknown Kingdoms

One of my first ever published articles back when I was writing for a local magazine in London, was about a street in Notting Hill called Freston Road, which declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1977. Frestonia, essentially a community of squatters who had come together to secede from the UK after the local council threatened to evict them, had their…

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