vintage black glamour by nichelle gainer

'I knew about Dorothy Dandridge and Lena Horne, but who knew that there were so many other Negro starlets nipping at their heels?' she writes.

Gainer was researching a novel about black beauty contestants in the 1950s leafing through magazines like Jet, Tan, Hue and Our World, she was surprised to see young African-American women getting the same breathless media coverage as today's stars. Vintage Black Glamour began with a visit to Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

The force is strong throughout Nichelle Gainer's Vintage Black Glamour, a carefully curated collection - packed with historical sketches and political commentary - of photographs spanning nearly a century of black beauty and style. You didn't think Josephine Baker ran out and got her pedicure done in the streets right? But only she could don a leopard print number and look so fab as her feet got some pedicure action.'The artistic image is not intended to represent the thing itself, but, rather, the reality of the force the thing contains.' Man, that Eartha Kitt had the presence to make a room, and staircases smoulder. I would pay good money to know what had Harry Belafonte and Martin Luther King laughing so hard. I think you know by the looks of those legs, that that is the one and only Tina Turner. They are some of the most beautiful images out there, and so of course, I had to share.Take a peek. The book is still in a work in progress, so Gainer decided to share her photo finds and now curates the Vintage Black Glamour Tumblr blog, the Facebook page and Pinterest account. VBG is the brainchild of writer Nichelle Gainer whose goal, according to a recent NPR profile, was to start a book project showcasing a collection of rarely seen historical photos of actors, educators, writers, students, musicians and more - all African-American. It shows you people, things, places in their most unadorned state, stripped bare if you will, so we can appreciate their simplicity.Ī few months ago, I stumbled across the Facebook page of Vintage Black Glamour and was instantly smitten with the beautiful, rarely seen images of famous black folks and some not so famous black folks. There's nothing sexier to me than a black and white photo.

Vintage black glamour by nichelle gainer