New York City Deputy Police Commissioner John A. Leach, right, watching agents pour liquor into sewer following a raid during the height of prohibition, circa 1921. (Photo by Tom Marshall/Mediadrumworld)
The sun shines on trees that are displaying their autumn colours surrounding Palladian bridge and the lakeside Pantheon at the National Trust's Stourhead on November 3, 2010 near Warminster, England. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Photochromes are vibrant and nuanced prints hand-coloured from black-and-white negatives. Created using a process pioneered in the 1880s, these images offer a fascinating insight into the world when colour photography was still in its infancy. A Tour of the World in Photochromes is at the Swiss Camera Museum, Vevey, until 21 August. Here: Street food in the Strada del Porto in Naples, Italy, 1899. (Photo by Swiss Camera Museum/The Guardian)
American photographer Thomas Allen constructs witty and clever dioramas using figures cut from the covers of old pulp paperbacks. Using salacious pulp art drawing’s of the ’40s and ’50s that covered books such as ” I Married a Dead Man” and ” Marihuana Girl’, Allen constructs one set of pictures up close while obscuring another, and in the process creates a different context. Each piece is given a brand new storyline, though never quite strays from their cheeky origins.
The agency Van Wanter Etcetera collaborated with Souverein to create the “Written Portraits” series of 3D author to promote literature and autobiographies in Holland. The series of artworks was produced to promote Dutch Book Week this year.
Georgia Russell is a Scottish artist who slashes, cuts and dissects printed matter, transforming books, music scores, maps, newspapers and photographs into patterned abstractions that leave a resemblance of the original but transport it to another time and place where everything is fragmented, and always in flux.
Justin Rowe creates these magical sculptures from hand cut books and found images with the help of just a touch of gum arabic and 24 carat gold or palladium leaf. Some are very much in the realms of fairy stories like the one above, but my favourites are the stories below where Justin’s skill brings the book’s own illustrations to life.