Capturing the Short Shorts Phenomenon in a Photo Journey Through the 70s and 80s
Short shorts, as the name suggests, are a style of shorts that are shorter than the average length. This fashion trend has a history that dates back to the 1930s, when they were donned by Hollywood starlets for publicity photos. Interestingly, their popularity led to a by-law in New York City, which was eventually repealed in 1942, prohibiting women from wearing them. Continue reading »
Meet FULALEO, The Colombian Graphic Artist Who Revived the ’80s in His ‘2080s, The Past is the Future’ Series
Fulvio Alejandro Obregon, also known as Fulaleo, is a Colombian graphic artist and illustrator who has gained recognition for his imaginative and humorous series of images entitled “The 2080s, The past is the future”. Through his artwork, Obregon brings the vibrant spirit of the ’80s back to life by envisioning contemporary pop stars in an ’80s style and creating retro-wave album covers for them. Continue reading »
The BMX Daredevils of the 70s and 80s: Flying High and Jumping Low
Ah, the good old days when kids were kids, and danger was just another word for fun. The 1970s and 1980s were the golden age of BMX riding, where the biggest thrills came from launching oneself off makeshift ramps, pulling gravity-defying stunts, and risking life and limb for the ultimate adrenaline rush. Continue reading »
Exploring the Delicious Slices of London: A Look at Cafes from the 1980s
In Peter Marshall’s second collection of photographs capturing the cafes of London between 1980 and 1990, we are transported back to a time before chain coffee shops dominated the high street. Mo’s, Maggie’s, Ivy’s, Pegy’s and more, these cafes offered a glimpse into a simpler era, prior to the plethora of styles and flavors available today. Continue reading »
A Look Back at the Workplaces and Offices of the 1970s and 1980s
The office has undergone a dramatic transformation over the past several decades, evolving in layout, style, colors, work culture, and technology. The modern office is geared towards individuality, with ergonomic design and cutting-edge technology playing a crucial role in this transition. Continue reading »
Marketing Strategies of the 1960s-1980s: Women in Miniskirts Promote Computer Systems
During the 1960s to 1980s, it was not uncommon for advertisers to use women in revealing outfits, particularly miniskirts, to promote computer systems. These tactics were meant to appeal to a male-dominated industry, with the idea that sex sells being exploited to grotesque ends. Continue reading »
Retro Arcade Game Ads from the 70s and 80s: A Nostalgic Look at the Cheesy Marketing of the Past
In the 1970s and 1980s, arcade games were all the rage, and marketers knew it. They created ads that played up the sexy and tough image of the typical arcade game player, trying to appeal to adults who were the primary consumers of these coin-operated machines. Continue reading »
Dolphin Shorts: One of Popular Fashion Styles in the 1980s
Dolphin shorts or Dolfins are a specific style of unisex shorts worn for athletics. They are typically very short and were originally made from nylon with contrasting binding, side slits, and rounded corners, with a waistband at the top—a style popular in the 1980s. Continue reading »
Life Before iPods: 26 Vintage Photographs Show the Heyday of Boombox in New York City From the 1980s
Those of us who lived in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s can testify to the very serious quality of life issues – graffiti covered subways, vandalism, garbage, crime, noise, drugs. The streets were minefields of dog poop just waiting for the next victim, those unfamiliar with the terrain or seasoned New Yorkers who had a momentary lapse of attention to the sidewalks. It was a very rough time and not the promised land at all. Continue reading »
Björk With a Cute Pixie Cut Photographed by Herb Ritts in 1989
Björk was born on October 21, 1966, in Iceland’s capital city, Reykjavik. From the age of six until she was 14, she attended a local music school, where she studied the classics, and learned to play the flute and the piano. These amazing portraits of Björk were taken by photographer Herb Ritts in 1989, when she still was in the Sugarcubes. Continue reading »
A Love Letter to The Golden Age of Corporate Kitsch
From shimmering skyscrapers and astro-turf carpets to monotonous rows of grey computer boxes offset by dusty pink walls, the Instagram account @__________office has all of the workplace tropes we grew up seeing in movies and on TV, but didn’t get to experience ourselves. Continue reading »
Cars of New York City: Snapshots from The 1970s and Early 1980s
About 13 years ago, Andy Blair decided to send off batches of these hidden gems for digitizing. Once in the digital domain, he spent months enhancing the images taken so long ago. “Talk about a labor of love!”, he says. A friend mentioned Flickr to Andy and after checking it out, he tentatively decided to start uploading. Continue reading »
Vintage Photos Show Men’s Fashion Styles in the 1980s
While men’s fashion didn’t change as dramatically throughout the 20th century as women’s fashion, 1980s men’s fashion trends and styles developed new looks alongside a resurgence of older styles. Continue reading »
Steve Jobs Showing Andy Warhol How To Use a Macintosh Computer that Sean Lennon Received for His 9th Birthday in 1984
It was October 9, 1984, and Steve Jobs was going to a nine-year-old’s birthday party. He’d been invited just a few hours earlier by journalist David Scheff, who was wrapping up a profile of the Apple Computer wunderkind for Playboy. Jobs was far from the highest-profile guest, however. Walter Cronkite, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Louise Nevelson, John Cage, and singer-songwriter Harry Nilsson were also in attendance. And Yoko Ono, of course—it was her son’s birthday, after all. Continue reading »
Amazing Black and White Photos Capture Street Scenes of Liverpool in the 1980s
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is the tenth largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom. Continue reading »
Wonderful Photos Capture Everyday Life of Florida in the 1980s
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to the south by the Straits of Florida and Cuba; it is the only state that borders both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. Continue reading »
1986 Calendar Featuring Morris the Cat, the World’s Most Finicky Cat
Long before internet memes, there was Morris the Cat, the advertising mascot for 9Lives brand cat food, appearing on its packaging and in many of its television commercials since the 1970s. This particular appearance was on a 1986 calendar titled “Morris, A Cat For Our Times” that featured several pieces of technology. Continue reading »
Once in Harlem: Intimate Portraits of Harlem Residents Taken by Japanese Photographer Katsu Naito
In 1983, at only 18 years of age, Katsu Naito arrived in New York from his native Japan to work as a contracted kitchen chef. By 1988 he had settled in Manhattan’s Harlem neighborhood, an area only just recovering from the brutal economic devastation of the 1970s, and on the cusp of the drastic dislocation brought upon longtime residents of this historically black community in the 1990s. Continue reading »
Wonderful Photos of London’s Tube Riders From the 1960s to 1980s
For more than four decades, photographer Bob Mazzer has been taking pictures on the London Underground. Continue reading »
Vintage Photos of People Posing With Their Automobiles in the 1980s
The ’80s were an exhilarating time for music, fashion, and culture. Young people were moving to big cities in droves and embodying the catchphrase “dress for success.” Continue reading »
Chilling Photographs of Summer Tourists on the Acropolis in Athens in the Early 1980s
In 1983–84, American photographer Tod Papageorge spent a month each summer on the Acropolis in Athens, capturing the people who followed the same path, finding their way up to the ancient building to see what all the fuss was about and take photographs to prove they’d been there. His resulting body of work seems lost in time, fusing the ancient with the modern. Continue reading »
Nostalgic Photos Show Fashion Styles of Young People in the 1980s
Fashion of the 1980s placed heavy emphasis on cheap clothes and fashion accessories and very big poofy hair. Apparel tended to be very bright and vivid in appearance. Punk fashion began as a reaction against both the hippie movement of the past decades and the materialist values of the current decade. The first half of the decade was relatively tame in comparison to the second half, which is when the iconic 1980s color scheme had come into popularity. Continue reading »
God Save the Queen: Amazing Photos of Manchester Punks in the 1980s
Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelery, and body modifications of the punk counterculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited to the dressed-down look of North American hardcore. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including glam rock, skinheads, rude boys, greasers, and mods have influenced punk fashion. Continue reading »
Back To Beat Street: Photos of Hip-Hop In The Bronx Back in the 1980s
Sophie Bramly spent 1982 to 1984 photographing clubs and culture in the Bronx. The New York borough was home to new sound and look. Continue reading »
Fascinating Photographs of Old Shopfronts Taken in the East End of London in 1988
“In 1988 these ex-shops didn’t have long left. Long after the interiors had turned to dust, what you see are pretty much their last appearances on earth.” Continue reading »