The Lost Holidays
Take a walk down a narrow cobbled street, gaze up at washing blowing outside shuttered windows, squeeze a lemon on a tree, to check if it’s ripe - and marvel at rows of striped parasols on the beach.
This evocative collection of images, curated from Gemma Taylor’s extensive collection of 35mm slides, were taken on holiday in the Med, mostly by British holidaymakers in the 1970s.
Take a deep breath in, smell the salty sea air, and breathe out slowly, thinking of the dolce vita…
The complete package (holiday)
The Lost Holidays are a joyful collection of photos taken around the time back when UK joined the EU, which brought more affordable travel and saw package holidays to “the Med” soar. A week of sun, sand and sea could be had for £25pp - around £300 in today’s money.
Curated from tens of thousands of found slides, the collections within the collection include: narrow streets, white cars, smart men, smoking, reading, flares, pink flowers, parasols - which you see above - and many more.
Over time, Gemma Taylor is turning these into online collections, exhibitions and books.
The intention: To share that sensuous holiday feeling through collective memories and cherish these found moments. Although the images are decades old, the same holiday associations remain strong today - it’s less about nostalgia and more about the typology of a holiday that we all recognise and love - both then and now.
