Exhibition · 2014

Those Old Flirty Times — Pin-Up Rehabilitated

Millenáris Velodrom, Budapest

In my own words

Pin-up usually gets treated as nostalgia, or worse, as a costume you rent for an afternoon. I never saw it that way. For me it was always attitude — that playful, knowing confidence a woman has when she is entirely in on the joke.

So we built the whole thing around that: the wink, not the wardrobe. The Velodrom was a wonderfully strange place for it, all industrial curves and echo. And the women left standing a little taller than when they arrived. That, honestly, is the only review I ever cared about.

Gallery

Works from the exhibition

A woman in retro styling poses among willow branches like a vintage bride portrait.
A 1950s-styled woman with victory rolls drives a vintage convertible car.
A pin-up styled woman in a pink dress kicks up her leg in a playful vintage pose.
A sepia-toned vintage photo of a child at a homemade soapbox derby cart.
A woman in vintage styling drinks from a bottle through a straw.
A woman in a polka-dot dress stands in a golden wheat field.
A pin-up styled woman eats a lollipop on a picnic blanket outdoors.
Five women in 1950s and 60s retro styling pose together on a sofa.
An artistic nude portrait of a tattooed pin-up styled woman adorned with flowers.
A close-up glamour portrait of a blonde woman in pin-up styling.
A vintage-styled girl drinks from a bottle through a curly straw.
A couple in retro biker styling poses beside a customized motorcycle.
A studio portrait of a curly-haired woman in pink sunglasses and a white blouse with pink beads and a pink belt.
A black-and-white photo of a tattooed woman with short blonde hair holding two wrenches in a field, a motorcycle blurred in the background.
A little girl in a polka-dot dress with a pink bow and pearls poses beside hay bales in a wheat field.
A woman in vintage cafe styling with a red-trimmed teal dress eats an ice cream cone at an outdoor table.
A close-up portrait of a blonde woman with cat-eye sunglasses pushed up and red lipstick.
A woman in a denim jacket and pink polka-dot skirt with a red bandana stands by a weathered vintage door.
A tattooed woman in a red shirt tied at the waist leans against a vintage car, wearing a leopard-print headband.
A woman in a polka-dot dress and pearls looks back over her shoulder while driving a vintage car.
A sepia-toned photo of a tattooed woman in a striped dress sitting on a motorcycle.
A little girl in a pink polka-dot dress with a bow stands in a wheat field.
A woman in a denim jacket and pink polka-dot skirt sits on a curb drinking a bottled soda through a straw.
A close-up of a blonde woman in a red dress lying back in a car seat with red lipstick.
A sepia-toned photo of a woman with her arm raised, sitting in a vintage muscle car in front of a brick wall.

© Norbert Bánhalmi / BANHALMI. All rights reserved. Images from the BANHALMI archive, 1999–2026.

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Pin-up usually gets treated as nostalgia, or worse, as a costume you rent for an afternoon. I never saw it that way.

Period of the oeuvre

II2014–2016Human stories and historical memory

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Period of the oeuvre · II

Human stories and historical memory

This exhibition belongs here because of the question behind it, the photographs it brought together and the traces it left in public.

Archive overviewHuman stories and historical memory Press and moving imageThose Old Flirty Times — Pin-Up Rehabilitated Curatorial dossierResearch context