Portobello Road Photographed in the Sixties by John Petty offers a photographic record of the famous London street in what many consider to be its golden era.
Taken in the early 1960s, the photographs remained unpublished until this book was released last year. They show the market, its characters and traditions which have all but gone from the area now.
The book is available in hardback from Amazon, priced £11.66.
Some of you might know that Lady Gaga is the Creative Director at Polaroid and as such, is in charge of producing products that will grab the world's attention. At the current CES gadget circus, she's just turned up to show off a printer, some bizarre camera glasses and this – the Polaroid GL30.
All the products are under the Grey Label (by Haus of Gaga) banner, but we're not sure when these are going into production, although 'later this year' has been floated as an approximate date for the GL30. It's a modern-day interpretation of the Polaroid camera, keeping a retro look (in this case looking like something out of a 60s sci-fi movie) and still printing out images on-demand, this time with the latest Zink printing system. Only this time, there's a flip-out screen and options to customise your images (filters, borders etc) before you print them out.
See another shot of the camera over the page. It's a head-turner no doubt, even if it's a lot bulkier than the camera on your mobile phone. As soon as we hear news on price and availability, you'll be the first to know. See the Polaroid site for the promo film of the launch too.
Find out more Polaroid website
We have previously mentioned Kevin Cummins’ postcards celebrating the music of Manchester and Liverpool, but even more of a treat is his Joy Division Postcard Box Set.
Cummins is viewed by many as the definitive chronicler of the Manchester music scene, beginning his career at around the time that Joy Division started. This special edition box set features 20 of his iconic Joy Division images, reproduced as postcards and presented in hand finished box. Appropriately, the set was made in Manchester.
Buy it online from Polite Shop, priced £25.
We have featured the Lomo LC-A+, not least when it celebrated 25 years last year. Well, it’s 26 this year and the camera that started the whole Lomography thing off is back as the Lomo LC-A+ White.
It’s quite a package too. This Soviet-era 35mm camera still has that Russian Minitar 1 f/2.8 32mm lens, but this time comes with a white camera body with white leather detailing that’s ‘inspired by a Japanese garden’. There’s also a multiple exposure switch for easy, real-time double-exposure, expanded film ISO settings from 100 to 1600, a cable release thread for shake-free night-time and indoor shooting and a hot shoe for external flash.
Oh yes, there’s also a cool matching white case and the option to upgrade to allsorts of extras, some of which are pictured over the page. Only 1,000 worldwide, it’s priced at £379.
Following on from the Or Glory 21st Century Rockers book by Horst A. Friedrichs comes another book that looks to be covering similar ground – Rockin' – The Rockabilly Scene book by Andrew Shaylor.
There are two key differences though. Firstly, this book doesn't land until next year and secondly, it seems to cover more ground geographically, taking in scenes in the US and UK. Indeed, Rockin' is described as a 'unique portrayal of the contemporary rockabilly scene', with Shaylor granted exclusive access at events to capture 'the raw energy of the music and the commitment of the rockabilly community to authenticity'.
There's also a history of the subculture by rockabilly legend Jerry Chatabox in the book. which is published by Merrell in April 2011. You can pre-order now though, with Amazon discounting to £19.50 from the £30 RRP.
As retro as we all like to be, it’s useful to have a modern handset and we’re guessing many of you currently use Apple’s iPhone. But the iPhone can be retro too, especially when it comes to photography. In fact, there are so many retro camera apps out there, we thought we would sort out the good from the bad.
Specifically, picking out what are, in our opinion, the five best vintage camera apps for the iPhone.
1. Hipstamatic
It’s the star of the show, at least in terms of sales. It comes with three rolls of vintage-style film (simulated of course). plus a selection of lenses and flashes for the initial price. Once you’re in, you can buy more, as well as share via the social networks and if you love your work lots, you can even order your analogue prints.
It’s the market leader for good reason and is easy to use. But unless you start spending, you might get a little bored of the limited options fairly soon.
We like: Ease of use, finished and the options to share.
Not so sure about: Cost of add-ons and how quickly we got tired of the initial set up.
Price: £1.19
Find out more about Hipstamatic
