Friday, September 28, 2012

MID CENTURY COOL



The Flower
photographed in Charles James's design studio by Louis Faurer
Flair 1950







Flair staff photographer Louis Faurer photographs 'a striking range of mood from the "Cool" disciples of Birdland' and Sonny Stitt with sax below, 'to romantic rose fashions' as above.


COOLNESS 
... the word has moved into the special language of the jazz world - a language quicker to obsolesce than any other form of slang. Its use demands complete authority; one dated syllable or inflection unmasks the outsider.

   In the circles of last year's hipsters and beeboppers. coolness is all.  It is spreading through Harlem, it has hit Broadway - in  a vast cavern called Birdland.

The uniform of coolness is no exhibitionist style of dress: it is an expression. Patient, remote, the young practitioners at bandside look like first cousins of the "non-engage" students in Paris existentialist cellars.

Louis Faurer is represented in the photography collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Cool at devodotcom
Coolness
Flair 1959
Photography: Louis Faurer 

Thursday, September 27, 2012

MID-CENTURY HOLLYWOOD



Elizabeth Taylor


Ava Gardner


Gloria Swanson


                                                                                                                        Gerald Heard


Dory Schary


FLAIR 
March 1950
The New Hollywood by Cecelia Ager
Photography: 
Louis Faurer 
Hoyningen-Heune


Hollywood Royalty at devodotcom

Thursday, September 20, 2012

SALVADOR DALI 1963







DALI
Gentlemen's Quarterly October 1963
Photography: Chadwick Hall
Illustration: Lou LoMonaco



Louis LoMonaco is an American painter and commercial artist.  He is a graduate of Yale University Art School and Cooper Union, New York City.  His illustrated works appear in many gentlemen's Quarterly magazines from the sixties. 

 LoMonaco's collage is featured on  the official program for the civil rights "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom," of August 1963.


He was married to soprano Shirley Verrett, now deceased. 


Daliesque at devodotcom


Tuesday, September 18, 2012


The Soft Stroke Of Black
Photography: Gleb Derujinsky
Harper's Bazaar April 1956

Friday, September 14, 2012

HAVE A NICE WEEKEND!









Harper's Bazaar April 1957
Photography:
Richard Avedon
Lillian Bassman

... mid-century sensibilities
devodotcom

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

BIZARRE PRINTS 1962

China Machado
Maurice Retner
Sarmi

China Machado
Monte-Sano and Pruzan
China Machado
Sarmi


Bizarre Prints
Harper's Bazaar March 1962
Photography: Melvin Sokolsky


China Doll
at devodotcom

WALKER EVANS - THE UNPOSED PORTRAIT


The crashing non-euphoria of New York subway life may someday be recorded by a Dickens or Daumier. The setting is a sociological gold mine awaiting a major artist.  Meanwhile, it can be a dream 'location' for any portrait photographer weary of the studio and of the horrors of vanity.


Down in the swaying sweatbox he finds a parade of unself-concious captive sitters, the selection of which is automatically destined by raw chance.



The portraits on these pages were caught by a hidden camera, in the hands of a penitent spy and an apologetic voyeur.


But the rude and impudent invasion involved has been carefully softened and partially mitigated by a planned passage of time.


These pages were made twenty years ago, and deliberately preserved from publication.


This sensitivity towards exposing the commuter's privacy by holding the images for two decades speaks to the short life-expectancy of that era (64-67) when compared to today's life expectancy. At the time of publication, life expectancy was 66-73 years, in 2010 - 80 years.
admin


As it happens,you don;t see among them the face of a judge or a senator or a bank president. What you do see is at once sobering, startling and obvious: these are the ladies and gentlemen of the jury.
Walker Evans


"The New York subway pictures are a fling in native American contemporary anthropology. With something of the anthropologist's approach, I tried to survey and record the New York subway inhabitants as though I were examining another period and another civilization."

Walker Evans: The Unposed Portrait
Harper's Bazaar 
March 1962
Photography: Walker Evans
Text: Walker Evans 


... in praise of great photographers
devodotcom

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

THE SMOKING GUN

BRIGITTE BARDOT

FOR



EMBA JASMINE MINK

Brigitte Bardot - Actress/animal rights activist
Harper's Bazaar 1963
Photography:Jacques Blot

... in praise of sex kittens
devodotcom

Sunday, September 9, 2012

NEW YORK NEW YORK NEW YORK NEW YORK N


Rest In Peace
























The New Seven Wonders

Andy Warhol's Interview
January 1989
Illustration Rollin McGrail

Mix
Harper's Bazaar August 1993
Photography: Peter Lindbergh

... we love new york
devodotcom

REAL KATE MOSS - THE SUM OF HER PARTS


Jennifer Lopez Ft. Ja Rule - I'm Real








Living Colour
Vogue August 1993
Photography: Michael Thompson

I'm real ... devodotcom