Living in the digital world we do today, where kids learn to take iPhone snaps before they learn to walk and talk, it’s hard to imagine a time when photography was analogue, images took longer than a second to develop and you couldn’t instantly apply a luminescent filter to minimise your dark circles. But @analogvibes is the Instagram account is seeking to remind us of — and celebrate — that bygone era.
Curated by Kazakhstan born, and Cologne-based visual merchandiser Maria Fi, the feed fuses images of female art icons — Kahlo, Kusama, Helen Frankenthaler, Tracey Emin and Georgia O’ Keefe — fashion and beauty shots from old issues of Vogue, and black and white photography (often nudes) by renowned twentieth century photographers like Helmut Newton, Martin Parr, Juergen Teller and Glen Luchford. Found by trawling Pinterest, books and old magazines, Fi tells us matter-of-factly that the images are “a mix of people or photographers I admire”. Some stars like Björk, Sade and Patti Smith, Basquiat and Warhol pop up again and again, but Fi also has a fondness for Bauhaus and modernism. “I love classical modernism, László Moholy-Nagy and all things Bauhaus-era in general,” she admits. “Walter Gropius’ ideas about design being an integral part of life and not a style, fashion or dogma really resonates with me. That’s why taking things from the past and putting them into a contemporary context is important to me.”
That being said, Fi’s feed isn’t strictly Bauhaus-themed, it’s a treasure trove of nostalgic film photography, and snapshots of yesteryear sourced by Fi’s innate eye. “I simply enjoy sharing findings that stimulate me in any particular moment, it’s spontaneous.” But @analogvibes feels far from spontaneous, especially when you notice the seamless shifts in theme colours as you scroll through her feed. Currently, Fi is using a lot of ochre and mustardy yellows, but if you delve further into her back catalogue, you will discover blocks of pink and blues, a haze of lilac, a glimmer of green, or a splash of red amongst the monochromatic staples. In her subtly colour-coded grid, the powder pink of Amber Valetta’s eyeshadow for a 1998 Harper’s Bazaar editorial compliments a striking image of Yayoi Kusama in her New York studio surrounded by mottled fuchsia canvases in a delightful fashion that can’t be entirely coincidental.
If you’re a fan of devouring faded Vogue editorials, romantic black and white photography, and forgotten portraiture by a whole host of analogue photographers, then prepared to be obsessed.