Blog Post/Image Post.1

Vasta Images/Books is me Joseph Vasta.

I have been in the rare book and photographs trade as an international buyer and seller since 1984. I travel between my home in New York City and Europe, primarily Paris, since converting, over 25 years ago, my collection into inventory of material for sale. Along the way I became eBay seller "roseros" and in the prior three years, eBay store seller Vasta Images/Books, the original name of my business, dating back to the first catalogue I published in 1985. There is a link above that will connect you directly to my eBay store's homepage filled with approx.1,500 items for sale.

Illustration from Max Ernst's Une Semaine a Bonte published 1934

My rationale for this post is to share with you, the blogspot users in particular and the internet in general, rare and unusual images from my archives.

I promise I will NOT blog about and post endless pictures of my unbelievable Christmas decorations or my two adorable children or my faithful border collie or that amazing cruise to nowhere I just returned from with my third wife; I will never post my vacation photographs or my mother's recipe for the best fruit cake or link you up to that incredible pizza place in Florence, right on the other side of the....

I do promise to post rare and unusual images including books, photographs, periodicals, posters, postcards and other paper ephemera as well as three dimensional objects and original artworks in an attempt to share imagery to make your eyes very happy and possibly, show you material that you've not previously seen!

The material will be primarily from the areas mentioned in the mission statement on the right side of this page.  It will include items created from the mid-19th century to today.

The focus will be on European material from between the two world wars, circa 1915 to circa 1950. The posts will be thematic and will contain multiple images.

Leg Fetishism: Jambes et Attitudes, Paris 1930

At the end of the 1920s, the first periodicals dedicated to a special interest or "fetish" were published in Paris in the form of the "jambes" (legs) series. There were different magazines from two different publishers. The first, show here in the top three illustrations, was Jambes et Attitudes (Legs and Attitudes) published in Paris, circa 1929/1930 by Paris-Photo. It was 32 pages with 70 photographs all credited to Studio Paris-Photo.

The photographs appeared totally new and fresh at the time in comparison to everything else risque in nature, titillating the imagination by not revealing too much. It was all a tease, focusing on glimpses of legs and lingerie as the result of a chance "upskirt" view.

These accidental moments of "flashing" were captured on film by the ever ready staff photographers at the Paris-Photo studio. The results, while appearing posed and hardly accidental, have a fresh and somewhat shocking quality to them, especially considering that nothing like these photographs had been previously published.

See J&A in my eBay store.

Although the actual photographer(s) were never identified beyond the Studio Paris-Photo byline, there was an additional significant contribution by them via postcard size images. Most were posed outdoors and featured cloche hatted flappers raising there skirts, exposing lingerie, silk stockings, garter belts and high heels.

Invariably, the cloche hatted lovelies "caught" by the Studio Paris-Photo cameras, are seen in awkward moments: up a ladder, falling to the floor, skirt flying up; camera peeking up from under her secretary's desk, and the like. The results: a voyeur's fantasy showing bits of lingerie, stocking tops and legs.

In the 1960s American publishers of "men's" periodicals created the "speciality" magazine. Find out what your buyers want (i.e garters & stockings), get photographers to shoot it, then publish a magazines titled Leg Language, Black Silk Stockings, Garter Parade and the audience of buyers is captivated. Seems academic today, but in 1920s Paris it was a whole new thing, quite unassuming and quite wonderful.

At the same time, in the same city, another leg fetishist and voyeur was at work creating images for his new publishing concern Les Deux Tourelles (the Two Towers). His name was Albert Wyndham. 


Using both the Wyndham byline and that of the Film Art Studio, he had previously  published beautifully toned, real photo postcards in the mid-1920s. He was obsessed with the same types of models: seductive young flappers with marvelous figures showing off their stocking tops, legs and high heels, nothing more. He never showed any nudity in the postcards and only later, in his publications, did he begin to undress his models.

In 1930 he published magazines also using "Jambes" in the titles. The magazines were not only seductive but beautifully printed as he opted for quality, toned gravure impressions on unusual "art paper". Here is the cover and centerspread of Farandole, a one-shot confection, circa 1931.

Click here to see Jambes et Attitude in my eBay store

Folies Bergere programs: Paris 1920s/30s

The Folies Bergere music-hall, located in Paris on the rue Bergere, is a world famous venue attracting travelers and tourists for decades dating back to its original incarnation in 1869. The Folies Bergere is  known for the incredible "spectacles" created during the 1920s and '30s under the direction of Paul Derval, where Josephine Baker became an overnight sensation, circa 1925.


In circa 1923 the Folies began publishing lavishly produced souvenir programs. Each program was dedicated to one full season showing all the primarily performers in costume and all the staged "spectacles", some as colorized, two page spreads.


The programs for pre-occupied Paris were published until 1938. The thousands of photographs appearing in the programs were, amazing, all credited to a single photographer, Walery and his Paris Art Studio. I will soon post separate blogs for both Walery and Josephine Baker.

Two top illustrations are both hardcover volumes with the first nine Folies programs, circa 1923 ~ circa 1931, together with the original covers bound-in. These bound volumes were presented by Paul Derval to distinguished guests and friends of the Folies. The volume in red covers was bound in Czechoslovakia.

Program for 1930. Une Coup de Folie.

Each program cover was die-cut to reveal a part of the colorized photograph on the first page. The black and white was "colorized" by the printer to recreate how the photograph might appear in color. Not until 35mm color film for motion pictures was spooled for the Leica camera, in 1937, was true color (transparency) photography possible.

Program for 1929. De La Folie Pure.

Note the pre-King Kong image of beauty and the beast!

Program for 1931. L'Usine Folies 

Embossed silver foil covers

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Click here to see Folies Bergere items in my eBay store