A Pet Lion-- in Colour!

This blog always likes to feature strange pets* and old colour photographs, so the combination of both just had to have a post, even if we've seen a pet lion before. 

These photographs were shot by photographer Michael Rougier for LIFE-- no date is given but the style is pretty clearly 60s or maybe early 70s. 

Michael Rougier, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

Michael Rougier, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

Michael Rougier, LIFE © Time Inc.

Source

Venice in the Rain

A beautiful set of photographs from LIFE photographer Dmitri Kessel (who also shot these similarily beautiful and atmospheric photos of a snowy Paris) depicting Venice on a rainy December day, 1952.

Dmitri Kessel, LIFE © Time Inc.

Gondolas moored on the Grand Canal. Source

Dmitri Kessel, LIFE © Time Inc.

The Basilica and Doge's Palace on the Piazza San Marco. Source

Dmitri Kessel, LIFE © Time Inc.

People in the Piazza San Marco. Source

Wartime Barbering

Hair doesn't stop growing just because there's a war on, after all. 

© IWM (Q 19051)

The barber of the American Submarine Chaser Depot, WWI. Source

© IWM (Q 4029)

A barber of the Black Watch Regiment during the Somme, 1916. Source

© IWM (A 6223)

The ship's barber of the HMS Cochrane, WW2. Source

Picnicking in the Past

Hello and thank you to all my wonderful followers! I apologize for the prolonged absence-- I've been interning at an amazing photo collection, and much as I love photographs, I have to say that after 40 hours a week spent working with them, I need a break! I've just finished, though, and I have this month off before starting my second year of my master's (in photo history and preservation, of course!), so let's take advantage of it!

How about a nice, summery post to start? Picnics of the past!

LIFE archives © Time Inc.

A carside picnic, ca. 1930. Source

Swedish National Heritage Board

Picknicking in Lyskeil, Sweden, ca. 1890. Source

State Library of Queensland

A hunting party has a picnic, Queensland, Australia. Source

Colour Photographs of Paris, 1939

Just in time for Bastille Day, fantastic colour photographs of Paris taken in July 1939, not even two months before the outbreak of World War Two. By William Vandivert, for LIFE. 

You'll notice the colours have survived better in some than others... without seeing what the actual objects are it's impossible to know, but I suspect some were taken on Kodachrome film (the ones with better colour--Kodachrome lasts better than any other colour film) and the others on a different film (though still a Kodak one-- in just one of the images, you can see text on the right labelling it as Kodak!). 

William Vandivert, LIFE © Time Inc.

Advertising posters on the Rue de Courcelles. Source

William Vandivert, LIFE © Time Inc.

Rooftops of the city. Source

William Vandivert, LIFE © Time Inc.

A street in Montmarte. Source