It’s hard to imagine just how precious a single physical photograph can be from our modern-day viewpoint of complete image saturation. In comparison, a found photograph contains so much – it’s a unique object that can so easily be torn from its context yet still be freighted with meaning.
Image from Dressed to Impress
That’s the premise behind The Anonymous Project, an archive started in 2017 by the filmmaker Lee Shulman. Inspired by his acquisition of a box of Kodachrome colour slides with no identifying information, Shulman set up The Anonymous Project to collect and catalogue the overlooked work of unknown anonymous photographers.
Image from Dressed to Impress
Over time, the collection has spawned print publications, including Mid-Century Memories, On the Road, The House, and collaborations with Omar Victor Diop and Martin Parr (Shulman also directed the recent documentary, I Am Martin Parr).
Image from Dressed to Impress
Dressed to Impress is the latest monograph to emerge from this rich archive. As the title suggests, the images within represent their subjects at their best, photographs that have been posed for, not swiftly snapped. As a result, the images show people dressed in their finest clothes, whether for a family event, formal occasion or to showcase a new job or outfit.
Image from Dressed to Impress
With most of the imagery dating from the 1950s and 1960s, and focused on the UK and USA, Dressed to Impress provides a valuable snapshot into the sartorial choices of a bygone age, away from the polished world of high fashion. What stands out is the evidence of joy and pride, as subjects put forward their best face, with colour, pattern and texture all faithfully vividly rendered by Kodachrome’s cutting edge film technology.
Image from Dressed to Impress
According to Shulman, the photographs ‘show a post-war society that wanted to celebrate life in all its facets. I am always amazed by the incredible colours and use of patterns and fabrics in what we mistakenly think of as a very monochrome period. Here, the clothes shout, “Look at me!” and “Life is fabulous.”’
Image from Dressed to Impress
Dressed to Impress: The Anonymous Project, Lee Shulman, Prestel, £40, PrestelPublishing.PenguinRandomHouse.de, Anonymous-Project.com, @the.anonymous.project
Image from Dressed to Impress
-
The great American museum boomNine of the world’s top ten most expensive, recently announced cultural projects are in the US. What is driving this investment, and is this statistic sustainable?
-
Here’s how Heathrow is reimagining airport chaos as ambient musicGrammy-nominated Jordan Rakei turns travel noise into a meditative soundtrack by sampling everything from baggage belts to jet engines
-
Wallpaper* checks into Gansevoort Meatpacking, an art-filled hotel that mirrors the district’s glow-upThis sharp, stylish New York hotel is a fixture in its neighbourhood, where boutiques, restaurants and clubs have long since taken over spaces once occupied by slaughterhouses
-
How to be butch: Clark Henley’s sharp, satirical and playful manual is back in printThe 1982 classic, ‘The Butch Manual: The Current Drag and How to Do It’, full of tongue-in-cheek advice, is available once again
-
We are all fetishists, says Anastasiia Fedorova in her new book, which takes a deep dive into kinkIn ‘Second Skin’, writer and curator Fedorova takes a tour through the materials, objects and power dynamics we have fetishised
-
The gayest love story ever told: Jeremy Atherton Lin's memoir is a tribute to homeIn 'Deep House: The Gayest Love Story Ever Told', Jeremy Atherton Lin mixes memoir with a historical deep-dive into marriage equlaity
-
The glory years of the Cannes Film Festival are captured in a new photo book‘Cannes’ by Derek Ridgers looks back on the photographer's time at the Cannes Film Festival between 1984 and 1996
-
Taschen’s sexy record covers are hitting all the right notesTaschen has been through 50 years of album art for its latest tome, ‘Sexy Record Covers’
-
Daniel Arsham’s new monograph collates the works of the auto-obsessed American artist‘Arsham Motorsport’ is two volumes of inspiration, process and work, charting artist Daniel Arsham’s oeuvre inspired by the icons and forms of the automotive industry
-
Era-defining photographer David Bailey guides us through the 1980s in a new tome not short of shoulder pads and lycraFrom Yves Saint Laurent to Princess Diana, London photographer David Bailey dives into his 1980s archive in a new book by Taschen
-
Inside Joan Didion’s unseen diary of personal relationships and post-therapy notesA newly discovered diary by Joan Didion is soon to be published. Titled 'Notes to John', the journal documents her relationship with her daughter, husband, alcoholism, and depression
