Proud WWII Pilots Modelling their Personalised Flight Jackets

They all had them; the standard A-2 flight jacket that every soldier was issued during the war, but I could never really imagine these tough, battle-worn guys sitting around, designing and doodling their own customised bombers. While some were clearly made professionally and some were homemade while killing time in between the action, here’s a fantastic collection of photographs from…

Memories of a Lost Valley: 5,000 Photographs Discovered in an Attic

Between 1900 and 1930, a poor and destitute seed pedlar took more than five thousand photographs of daily life in an isolated valley of the Italian-speaking Swiss territory to the south of the Alps. Roberto Donetta can now be considered one of Swiss photography’s great outsider artists, but when he died in debt, solitude and misery in 1932,…

Now That Is How You Write a Love Letter

They met in Paris in 1932. Both already married, American novelist Henry Miller and Franco-American diarist Anaïs Nin began an intense love affair leading to some of the most passionate letters ever written… August 14, 1932 Anaïs: Don’t expect me to be sane anymore. Don’t let’s be sensible. It was a marriage at Louveciennes—you can’t dispute…

20 People Not Giving a Damn About the Red Carpet at Cannes

My favourite kind of people are one the ones who don’t give a damn. So while the rest of the media fusses over the red carpet posers at the Cannes film festival, getting their seasonal fix of celebrity circusry, let’s take a look back at the ones who were just in it for the booze, the beach, and the…

Our Zoom Date with Wes Anderson’s Sign Painters

It feels like a lifetime ago that were spying on the film set for The French Dispatch, desperate for a glimpse of the movie magic that Wes and his team of talented elves were busy creating in the French town of Angoulême. Alas, the much-anticipated film finally made it to cinemas and we scored ourselves…

The Selfie-Obsessed Countess of Vanity

She wasn’t the most likeable character of her time. Once rumoured to be the most beautiful woman in 19th century Europe, a queen of both style and drama; model, mistress, self-appointed muse, narcissist; if there’s one thing to know about the Italian Countess de Castiglione – it’s that she was seriously vain. Shipped off to…

Remember that time the Motion Picture was Invented (and Everyone was Naked)?

One of my favourite things about Eadweard Muybridge, the man who gave us the moving image, aside from the vast array of exotic spellings he adopted for his birth name (Edward Muggeridge), is the idea of him travelling around the American wild west in a 19th century carriage which he converted into his very own…

When They Say ‘Haussmann’s Paris’, What Do They Mean?

Walking through Paris, as a tourist or a local, it’s hard to miss the sense of harmony that the city exudes. The standardized buildings, the parks, the long angular streets that seem to always lead to a landmark. Everything feels intentional, organized, and connected. This isn’t by chance, this sensation is largely thanks to the…

Can-Can Dancing in the Paris Vineyard

The Montmartre annual wine harvest has been a festive Parisian tradition since 1934, but we’ve come across some photographs from the 1950s that reveal a time in the vineyard’s history when the grape-picking ceremony added an extra kick into the celebration. Wink wink. Since the 19th century, the Parisian vineyard’s closest neighbours have included the infamous cabaret and burlesque houses…

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Exotic Dancing on the Colonial Bandwagon

When I first saw a black and white photograph of Ruth St. Denis, I was instantly seduced by her, just as many audiences of the early 20th century were too. Who was this female chameleon from another era dressed as an Egyptian Goddess, a Hindu deity, a gypsy princess, a geisha or even as an Indian peacock? Ruth St. Denis in the…

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