Category:
Photography and Photographers
In 1949, Terry Leah won the title of "Miss Dial" in a contest sponsored by Dial Soap. As far as beauty titles go, this one wasn't that unusual. But what was unusual was that, as part of the responsibility of being Miss Dial, Terry had to take a bath, using Dial Soap, in the window of Eckerd Drug Company in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Adding to the public exposure, Dial promised that the person who took the best photo of Terry as she bathed would win $25.
Charlotte News - July 7, 1949
Charlotte Observer - July 8, 1949
Young Dickie Higgins was determined to win that prize. I'd bet that was the most exciting day of his life up until then. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find out who did win the photo prize.
"Dickie Higgins takes a shot of dancer Terry Leah, who is posing in a bubble bath in a Charlotte, North Carolina, store window advertising a new line of bath soap."
NY Journal American - July 28, 1949
(left) Greenville News - July 9, 1949; (right) Raleigh News and Observer - July 14, 1949
The image below is a single-exposure photo. It wasn't created by Photoshop. Knowing that, it took me a long time to make sense of the image (because my brain refused to see how it could be a scene from real life). My wife, on the other hand, figured it out right away.
Some info about it from PetaPixel:
The photograph, titled “Gap,” was captured by a Japanese photographer named Kenichi Ohno from the Saitama Prefecture in the Kantō region of Honshu, part of the Greater Tokyo Area. Kenichi entered the photo in the 39th “Japanese Nature” photo contest put on by the The All-Japan Association of Photographic Societies (AJAPS), which boasts 10,000 members across Japan, and the photo was honored as a “Special Selection” winner.
PetaPixel also explains how to make sense of it, if you're stuck.
via
TYWKIWDBI
"Photographs made while travelling 50 to 70 mph in Los Angeles and other parts of the Southwestern United States." 1989-1997.
More info:
andrewbush.net
via
Vintage Annals Archive
A bizarre image, but not an optical illusion or some kind of darkroom trick. It shows trees in Finland strung by a cable over a road as camouflage during World War II.
As explained by PetaPixel:
Pine trees were hung from cables which were connected to poles on the right-hand side of the road. The trees were strategically installed there to obscure the view from the nearby enemy Russian tower... the erected trees would not conceal the road from aircraft. But if Russian forces were looking at the area from a watchtower, all they would be able to see was an uninterrupted line of trees.
More info:
Finnish Defence Force's photographic archive
From the Hagley Archive's collection of
DuPont Product information photographs.
Definite industrial chemist as dominatrix vibe.
source (1945)
An explanation:
From a boiling bath of hot sulfuric acid, a laboratory technician lifts two rods of plastic. One has charred and deteriorated. The other-a rod of DuPont's new Teflon tetrafluoroethylene resin-is not affected at all by the highly corrosive hot acid. Teflon resists the most corrosive acids and solvents to a degree unequaled by any other plastic. It is not attacked even by aqua regia which dissolves gold and platinum.
A photo of another chemist doing the same thing, but it doesn't have the same vibe to it:
source (1945)
Back in the nineteenth century, Alexander Robinson operated a photographic studio on the Isle of Man. In 1885 he applied for a British patent (British Patent Specification 15,376) for an unusual invention — a fake third leg, which he envisioned using as a prop in his studio.
From his patent application:
a light artificial leg made to any required size, bent or straight, or with adjustable joint or joints, and to be attached to the person so as to appear to be a third leg. The end next the body is provided with straps, and a joint close to the body or soft air cushion or both so as to fit it in any required position to the body. It must be dressed with trousers, knickerockers, stocking, sock, legging, shoe or boot to correspond with the dress of the wearer, and can be fitted with spurs or not as desired. It is preferaly made of papier-mâché, cork, tin, pasteboard or inflated rubber cloth. To enable two of the legs to rest clear of the ground I prefer to let the real leg at least, or both, to rest on fine wire suspended from above.
His invention makes more sense once you know that the Isle of Man's heraldic coat of arms consists of three legs. I imagine that tourists would come to his studio to get a photograph of themselves with three legs, just like the Isle of Man.
I don't know if Robinson was ever granted a patent for this. The British patent office, unlike the American one, is not fully searchable online. More info:
History of Photography journal
20 year old Lova Moor, Cabaret performer at the Paris ''Crazy Horse Saloon'' was elected ''Miss Yashica Gold Venus'' under the sponsorship of the well launching on the French market of the new Electro 35 Mecanicor Camera produced by Yashica.
Source.
Use color film so you can see the blood better.
Time - May 19, 1952
Now that's how to do a group photo!
"It's a rare occasion when the paid firemen and the volunteers of the Carol Stream, Ill., fire departments get together. So the chief decided there should be a group picture. Other matters could wait, for a big fire, after all, is a real challenge. Actually, they set the fire themselves in an abandoned farm house, just for the practice in putting it out."
Calgary Herald - Apr 22, 1984