12.26.2008



John Rawlings (1912-1970) was one of the most prolific photographers of the 20th Century, with more than 200 Vogue and Glamour covers to his credit, as well as numerous ad campaigns and nude studies.

Rawlings’s three-decade affiliation with Conde Nast began in 1936, when he was hired by Vogue Studios as an apprenticed assistant working alongside many legendary masters, including Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, George Hoyningen-Huene, Irving Penn and George Platt Lynes.


Memo headline: Women in Necessary Civilian Jobs







Although his early work for British Vogue showed the strong influence of Hoyningen-Huene and Horst, Rawlings slowly departed from their style. "Rawlings was certainly the first major Conde Nast photographer to demonstrate a truly American eye ... John Rawlings's photography has a practical, no nonsense feeling ... he focused his lens on the vibrant world surrounding him," writes Charles Dare Scheips Jr., former director of the Conde Nast Archives, in his introduction to Kohle Yohannan's book, John Rawlings: 30 Years in Vogue. "Rawlings brought a realistic visual style, presenting fashion as a force rather than a decoration."







:john rawlings via foto decadent

12.15.2008



One of the world’s longest exposures ever. For six months between the winter and summer solstice, Justin Quinnell left open his homemade pinhole camera and tracked each phase of the sun over Bristol's Clifton Suspension Bridge. The lowest arc shows the first day of exposure on the winter solstice, the top curves were captured in the middle of summer.



:justin quinnell