If one of your ephemeral interests is in Posters, you will want to take a look at this article in Smashing Magazine. The intro reads as follows:

Before the era of globalized entertainment made movie posters look the same in every country, Polish artists were creating their own versions for the internal market. What resulted was a whole school of artists trained in the art of the poster. This article presents a short historical look at how this movement was born and how it developed, form its art-related beginnings at the end of the 19th Century to the golden era of the film posters throughout the 20th Century.

The article is not all that long, with numerous sections. What is extensive is the number of posters shown. They have amassed a huge collection of colorful and interesting posters.

Two posters that caught my eye are the one shown on the left… It has the caption “1955 – “One Sunday Morning”, Poland 1953. Directed by Andrzej Munk” so obviously is related to a play… and the one shown on the right with the caption ““El Dorado”, US 1967. Directed by Howard Hawks” and starring John Wayne and Robert Mitchum. Two of my favorites!

The article ends with a conclusion that reads:

Posters are very important in the Polish culture. During the Communist regime they were probably the only colorful things one would see in the streets.

Having lived in China for a while, I can agree that colorful posters “were probably the only colorful things one would see in the streets”. While that changed rapidly over the years that I was in and out of China.. there are still many remnants that remain today. Not so much in the main cities like Beijing and Shanghai.. but get out into the rural areas and you can still see a lot of these old, torn and ripped posters on the side of buildings and other structures.

Anyway, have a look at Smashing Magazine.. and at the hundreds of posters they have shown.

I’m Tom Murphy and thanks for helping me give Ephemera the Encore it deserves.

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Technorati tags: Encore Ephemera, Ephemera, Ephemera Network, Polish Posters, John Wayne, Robert Mitchum