Smile for the camera!
May 16, 2012 5:54 PM   Subscribe

"Blow Job" is a series of portraits of people with gale-force winds blown directly into their faces. (SFW)

The artist is Lithuanian photographer Tadao Cern. More images can be found on his Facebook page.
posted by flyingsquirrel (62 comments total) 24 users marked this as a favorite
 
I'd love to see slow motion video of these faces in the wind.
posted by beagle at 5:59 PM on May 16, 2012


There is a lot of inner upper lip and gums in these photos. More than I needed to see, really.
posted by vegartanipla at 5:59 PM on May 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


Gums are not attractive.
posted by Mittenz at 6:00 PM on May 16, 2012


There is a lot of inner upper lip and gums in these photos.

Gums are not attractive.


Guuuuuuums in the wind
All we are is gums in the wiiiiiind...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:04 PM on May 16, 2012 [8 favorites]


Gotta say, I was blown away by these images.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:06 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


oh shit it's that puppet from the interpol video
posted by FAMOUS MONSTER at 6:07 PM on May 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


Why is #10 the only one with a bent nose?
posted by christopherious at 6:08 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


Why are there still drops on the hard hat? Shouldn't those have blown off first?
posted by leotrotsky at 6:09 PM on May 16, 2012


Why are there still drops on the hard hat? Shouldn't those have blown off first?

Not if it's a directed and narrow blast of air. Notice how the skin on the fingers isn't be blown? Air is being blown at the face, not the top of the head.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:13 PM on May 16, 2012


The answer, my friend...
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:14 PM on May 16, 2012 [4 favorites]




I want him to do this project with boxers and great danes and bulldogs. Blowing dog jowls are epic.
posted by ChuraChura at 6:18 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


This is good. The gimmick is good and produces entertaining images, but they also swing between hilarity and body horror. Sometimes in the same photo.


Now do it with dogs.
posted by cmoj at 6:37 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


Now do it with dogs.

And Republicans!

But stronger wind on the Republicans, please. Much stronger.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:39 PM on May 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


Huh. I get that skin is super flappy in high winds, but how the hell did that one dude's nose get so crazy-craze?
posted by threeants at 6:40 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


I prefer the work by Austrian actor Arnold Schwarzenegger in depicting people eating plo chops.
posted by DU at 6:48 PM on May 16, 2012


And the Oscar for DERP goes to...
posted by effugas at 6:57 PM on May 16, 2012


It kind of looks like all the models have been smushed against a window...

...or a scanner. I have no idea I have no idea how these people got themselves wedged into their scanners or why.
posted by raihan_ at 7:04 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


A rather uncomfortable amount of teeth in these blow job pics. One might even say grotesque.
posted by Llama-Lime at 7:13 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


It really reminds me of the classic human face under high g-forces video. There are a lot of other videos on the web like this, by the way. You know, if that's your thing.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:16 PM on May 16, 2012


1. Come up with suggestive name for project.
2. ???
3. Profit!!
posted by threeants at 7:22 PM on May 16, 2012


Is it very wrong to want a NSFW version? Just try to pretend you're not the least bit curious.
posted by orme at 7:24 PM on May 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


Somebody needs to film people like this trying to recite lines from, say, Downton Abbey or Mad Men and then composite the heads onto the actors in actual scenes from the show.
posted by jason_steakums at 7:25 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


They are all were krenshar.
posted by meinvt at 7:26 PM on May 16, 2012


Gale force winds are nothing to laugh about. ("No, I'm not laughing; it's just my cheeks being blown back.") Gale force winds are the main reason I decided not to become a reporter for the Weather Channel.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:33 PM on May 16, 2012


So... what? I'm the only one so far who immediately saw a family reunion of this guy?
posted by Mike D at 7:37 PM on May 16, 2012


So, what do these people look like, at rest?
posted by seawallrunner at 7:39 PM on May 16, 2012


vegartanipla: "There is a lot of inner upper lip and gums in these photos. More than I needed to see, really"

I love those. I love smiles like Vanessa Bayer's, where you're like, "Holy shit! There's a skull inside that face!"
posted by hydrophonic at 7:42 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


Is it very wrong to want a NSFW version?

You might have been taking Blow Job a little too literally. But while we're on the subject, am I the only one who finds it confusing that, in this context, the words "suck" and "blow" mean the same thing? They seem like opposites.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:43 PM on May 16, 2012


Does it need to be called blow job? They are essentially photographs of heads, why not just "head"? Blow job seems some how provocative. Interesting zombie effects though.
posted by mattoxic at 7:46 PM on May 16, 2012


Giving head?
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:49 PM on May 16, 2012


Huh. I get that skin is super flappy in high winds, but how the hell did that one dude's nose get so crazy-craze?

OK, so touch the end of your nose. It's probably hard, right? Lots of cartilage in there keeping it rigid. I know a few people (all from the same family) who don't have any hard cartilage in their noses--a bit of bone projection at the bridge, and then just skin all the way down. They look like perfectly normal noses, but they can do freaky things like press their faces directly into walls because their noses are able to just smoosh down completely.

I suspect there's something similar going on with this dude.
posted by phunniemee at 7:50 PM on May 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


This skin, it ripples.
posted by psoas at 7:56 PM on May 16, 2012


They look like perfectly normal noses, but they can do freaky things like press their faces directly into walls because their noses are able to just smoosh down completely.

Well, that clears up a question I had about video 2 from that bicycle airbag thread a couple days ago.
posted by twoleftfeet at 7:58 PM on May 16, 2012


I wish there was more variety in models, just because I'm curious. What about older people? Fatter people? Darker people? Younger people?

Oh jeeze, maybe there really was a diverse crowd there but the wind machine is the great leveler.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:00 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


I don't believe any of it. I think all the photos were air-brushed.
posted by twoleftfeet at 8:02 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


OK, so touch the end of your nose. It's probably hard, right? Lots of cartilage in there keeping it rigid. I know a few people (all from the same family) who don't have any hard cartilage in their noses--a bit of bone projection at the bridge, and then just skin all the way down. They look like perfectly normal noses, but they can do freaky things like press their faces directly into walls because their noses are able to just smoosh down completely.

In fact, my nose used to do that - because the cartilage was damaged when I broke my nose as a kid (hockey, of course!) and over the course of the next few decades it diminished some more every time I re-injured it. The net result was that my nose was soft and pliable and squishy.

Anyway, when I had a septoplasty done a couple years ago, the nice doctor took a bunch of cartilage from other areas of the nose and restructured it. Now it is weirdly firm and I can no longer to the face smushing trick.

My doctor was curious why I didn't have it corrected sooner. I suspect it was because I didn't go around touching enough noses; I had no idea that noses weren't supposed to be squishy.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 8:05 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


This blows.
posted by swift at 8:06 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


I want to date anyone who would put a picture like this as their online dating photo.

provided it isn't a particularly gummy one
posted by davejay at 8:12 PM on May 16, 2012 [4 favorites]


Well, between this and the brain worm post, I'm not gonna sleep tonight.
posted by schmod at 8:17 PM on May 16, 2012


My, what white teeth you (all) have!
posted by librarylis at 8:25 PM on May 16, 2012 [3 favorites]


I pefer to think of them as still panels in a comic book showing people being hit with a supervaillian's Melting Ray.
posted by The Whelk at 8:43 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


Many of them look like well preserved bog people.
posted by sourwookie at 8:44 PM on May 16, 2012 [4 favorites]


Gummy bares.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 8:46 PM on May 16, 2012 [2 favorites]


Skulls, skulls, skulls.
posted by ocherdraco at 8:47 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


Fans are commonly used in fashion photograph but I'd like to see them used at a higher wind velocity setting. "You're beautiful! Work it! Show me what you've got! Not so much gum! Love the camera! OK, i'm going to repeat; not so much gum! The camera loves you! Try to pull that eyelid down!"
posted by twoleftfeet at 9:12 PM on May 16, 2012 [4 favorites]


Creepy!
posted by asuprenant at 9:23 PM on May 16, 2012


This is the Benetton campaign of my nightmares.
posted by roger ackroyd at 9:28 PM on May 16, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm wondering about the teeth and gums - was it just the angle of the fan, or is this telling us something about facial anatomy that's not usually apparent? Is the top lip a whole lot weaker than the lower one? I'm curious.
posted by gusandrews at 10:06 PM on May 16, 2012


I think I dated one of these guys, a long time ago. Best blow job ever!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:13 PM on May 16, 2012


Of course, as Chevy Chase was once overheard to say, on the phone to his partner just before Weekend Update aired: "You don't actually blow, that's just a figure of speech."
posted by flapjax at midnite at 11:21 PM on May 16, 2012


Cool, but these look very heavily Photoshopped. Even in 150+ MPH winds the skin ripples but your features don't get distorted as "shown" in these shots. Here's a closeup of around 100 MPH on the face.
posted by Dean358 at 2:02 AM on May 17, 2012


Cool, but these look very heavily Photoshopped. Even in 150+ MPH winds the skin ripples but your features don't get distorted as "shown" in these shots. Here's a closeup of around 100 MPH on the face.

In that photo, he's getting the 100MPH wind distributed all over his face, so pressure entering the mouth is neutralized by the wind flattening the lips and surrounding area. In the pictures of this post, they are using a focused air stream aimed at the mouth. There is less pressure elsewhere on the face, so the skin is allowed to blow outwards.
posted by ymgve at 4:55 AM on May 17, 2012


It's good to see Jim Carrey is still getting work.
posted by AndrewKemendo at 5:55 AM on May 17, 2012


In the pictures of this post, they are using a focused air stream aimed at the mouth. There is less pressure elsewhere on the face, so the skin is allowed to blow outwards.

Certainly true, but does that explain the distortions to the facial bones, such as in the 10th picture from then top? (The one where the guy's nose is all twisted.) I don't think that would be possible without a trip to the hospital. It appears the photographer has enhanced what the airstream did to make the pics more compelling.
posted by Dean358 at 5:58 AM on May 17, 2012


Reminds me of this, which I find endlessly fascinating.
posted by saladin at 11:09 AM on May 17, 2012


#3 looks a bit like Henry Rollins.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:26 AM on May 17, 2012


I agree about the photoshopping. In #19 her teeth are distorted in a way that could not be explained by wind.
posted by amelliferae at 4:10 PM on May 17, 2012


That's okay, they're easily explained by crooked teeth.

I don't think that would be possible without a trip to the hospital.

Guys. Go find a mirror. Push on your nose. It must be exhausting being so desperate for everything to be fake.
posted by cmoj at 6:39 PM on May 17, 2012


Yeah, the nose just kinda does that sometimes
posted by jason_steakums at 6:51 PM on May 17, 2012


Yes, faces are remarkably fluid.
posted by ymgve at 7:34 PM on May 17, 2012


It must be exhausting being so desperate for everything to be fake.

Well, a couple of comments, if I may: I don't have a problem with people photoshopping images and when it's really well done it often generates discussion like this one, i.e., "was it altered?" And I think it's a valid topic to address on the Blue. For me the most relevant parts of the discussion being: the techie component -- how did they do that? -- and the relationship component -- is this being shared as cool imagery or am I being hoodwinked into being marketed to? And just for the record, I've been responsible for many retouching projects, from fixing skin blemishes in music videos to product shots that need to be altered to making up scenes in post.

Back to these images. One of the things that caught my eye in the shot with the guy's nose being bent is the line from the bridge of his nose to over his left eye (screen right). It's wonderfully symmetrical to the distortion of his nose. Nice touch, but real? Doesn't look it to me. So out of curiosity I checked out some of the photographer's other work. These are wonderful fashion shots of people with red hair and they are absolutely retouched (like all fashion pics). Notice the precise detail in the hair but their are areas on the face where all the skin detail goes away into a single color? Not possible even with the best makeup and lighting. These are also very well done -- look at the way the skin detail blends out perfectly. Point being he's no stranger to Photoshop, as is the case with every Pro photographer.

Lastly, here's a great example of before and after fashion and product retouching from a company in LA. (I have no relationship with them). Note the comment on the site that "most of [their retouching] will, of course, remain confidential... but here is an approved sampling of our work." I hope this helps explain why I think this is worth talking about, and not just interweb snarkieness of "being desperate for everything to be fake."
posted by Dean358 at 6:02 AM on May 18, 2012


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