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A Lens on the Battlefield: Roger Fenton’s Pioneering Photographs of the Crimean War
When we flick through war photography now, we half expect raw, sometimes shocking snapshots of the front lines, muddy trenches,...
32 views


Why Babies In Medieval Paintings Look Like Middle-Aged Men
Strolling through any European art gallery that houses works from the Middle Ages to the early Renaissance, one cannot help but notice...
178 views


Emma Willard and Her Beautiful Historical Time Maps
In the mid-19th century, at a time when the United States was rapidly expanding its borders and solidifying its national identity, a...
213 views


The Acid Archive: Mark McCloud's Institute of Illegal Images
On 6 October 1966, a date acid enthusiasts half-jokingly refer to as 'The Day of the Beast,' California became the first US state to...
450 views


The Last Impression: 26 Death Masks (Some Well Known, Some Not)
In the quiet hours following death, long before photography could capture a likeness, artisans turned to wax and plaster to preserve the...
17,359 views


Charles Dickens and the Secret History of His Final Resting Place
It was a grey June morning in 1870 when a solitary hearse slipped unnoticed through the streets of London. Few would have suspected that...
99 views


Autochrome Lumière: When the World First Turned to Colour in the Early 1900s
These days, we don’t give colour photography a second thought. It’s everywhere. From the high-res selfies on your phone to vintage film...
952 views


Oscar Wilde on Trial: Wit, Scandal and the Fall of a Victorian Icon
It began with a calling card, scrawled with a misspelled insult, and ended in a prison cell. The most celebrated playwright in London,...
399 views


The Curious Rise and Fall of Dickens World: Kent’s Victorian Theme Park Experiment
When it opened its doors in May 2007, Dickens World promised visitors the chance to step directly into the fog-shrouded, gaslit streets...
525 views


The Intimate Male Portraits from Herbert Mitchell’s Collection
In 2008, the Metropolitan Museum of Art received an extraordinary bequest from Columbia University librarian Herbert Mitchell, a lifelong...
3,689 views


The 1937 Delahaye Roadster: A Rolling Sculpture of French Elegance
In the golden era of French coachbuilding, when cars were as much objets d’art as they were machines, one creation stood above the rest...
110 views


Zorita: The Snake-Charming Star of American Burlesque
Zorita was more than a performer. She was an emblem of the rebellious, sensuous, and often subversive energy that defined American...
2,052 views


Through Paul Strand’s Lens: Capturing the Soul of Mexico in 1932
In 1932, Paul Strand arrived in Mexico at a pivotal moment in the country’s modern history. He did not come as a casual tourist or...
1,011 views


Alex Bartsch’s Vinyl Sleeve Photography Project Captures London’s Musical Past
This series reunites vintage album covers with the locations where their original photos were taken. Photographed by Alex Bartsch , the...
249 views


The Rio Lens of José Medeiros: Capturing the Soul of Brazil
In the quiet, sun-drenched city of Teresina, in Brazil’s Nordeste region, José Medeiros was born in 1921. By the age of twelve, he was...
290 views


Seeing the World Through Sebastião Salgado's Lens
Sebastião Salgado’s photography doesn’t just document—it compels you to stop and take in the weight of what you’re seeing. One of his...
733 views


Stepping Inside the Storyville Club: Helmer Lund Hansen’s 1957 Photos of Copenhagen’s Jazz Heart
If you could step back in time and sip whisky to the beat of a double bass, Copenhagen’s Storyville Club in 1957 would be the place to...
455 views


Studio Manassé: Olga Solarics, Adorján von Wlassics and Vienna’s Glamorous Photography Revolution
Imagine strolling into a Viennese salon in the 1920s and finding a world of velvet drapes, bearskin rugs, gilded mirrors and glamorous...
1,838 views


Diane Arbus: The Photographer Who Found Beauty Everywhere
Diane Arbus had a way of seeing people that most others overlooked. Through her lens, the outsiders and the unusual figures of New York...
1,479 views


Belles Lettres: The Naked Alphabet (1971) A Blend of Typography and Art
In the ever-evolving landscape of visual communication, few projects have captured the playful spirit of rebellion quite like Belles...
1,420 views


The Obsession of Oskar Kokoschka: Alma Mahler, Love Letters, and the Life-Size Doll
When Oskar Kokoschka fell for Alma Mahler, he didn’t just fall, he practically unravelled. The young Viennese artist’s passion for the...
4,356 views


A Supercut of Buster Keaton’s Daring DIY Stunts–and Keaton’s 5 Rules of Comic Storytelling
Long before CGI explosions and green screens, Buster Keaton was flinging himself off buildings, leaping onto moving trains, and surviving...
140 views


Ten Million Years of Evolution Mapped in a Five-Foot Infographic from 1931
Imagine scrolling through a world without the internet, no Google search, no YouTube explainers, and certainly no AI assistants. In this...
255 views


Destino: When Salvador Dalà Met Walt Disney and the World Got Weird (Eventually)
It sounds like the setup for a surrealist joke: Salvador Dalà walks into a party and meets Walt Disney. But what happened next wasn’t a...
733 views
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