William Gedney

Really nice images from O’Rourke’s Bar, Brooklyn c.1960 by William Gedney. Maybe not as good as Cafe Lehmitz by Anders Petersen but still pretty awesome. Taken from How to be a retronaut via Duke University Library

All images © William Gedney

Anders Petersen

Cafe Lehmitz – Anders Petersen

‘In 1967, Anders Petersen started to photograph the late-night regulars (prostitutes, transvestites, drunks, lovers, drug addicts) in a bar in Hamburg, Germany, named Café Lehmitz, and continued that project for three years. His photobook of the same name, published in 1978, has since become regarded as a seminal book in the history of European photography.

‘The people at the Café Lehmitz had a presence and a sincerity that I myself lacked. It was okay to be desperate, to be tender, to sit all alone or share the company of others. There was a great warmth and tolerance in this destitute setting.’ – Anders Petersen’. Taken from How to be a retronaut.

All images © Anders Petersen

 

Mugshots

A nice collection of Australian mugshots taken in a Sydney police station in the 1920’s. I love mugshots, especially old ones. I think there is something really hounest and transparent about them, you can really see the shame, or in some cases pride, in peoples eyes and quite often they are absolutely brilliant portraits. I also love the clothes, it’s a nice documentation of yesterdays fashion, how people really dressed when they didn’t know they were going to have their picture taken. Look at these photos and try to figure out why they have been arrested. Who was a drunk, a gangster, a murderer, a thief or a prostitute. Taken from the French blog La boite verte, there is a lot more mugshots there. These images originally comes from the book: City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912-1948.