Why Adolf, what bloodshot eyes you have ...
August 1, 2008 3:18 PM   Subscribe

Meet Adolf Hitler. Godwin! Look right into Stalin's eyes. 350 people from the dictator's country, Photoshopped together to create eerily alive photographs. (via kottke, via conscientious)

I think the thing that creeps me out the most is that evidently none of them are wearing shirts.
posted by WCityMike (41 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- loup



 
Those were really great. Kind of reminds you that these monsters are just people.
posted by Bonzai at 3:21 PM on August 1, 2008


Who will be the first to say "Where's GWB"?

Having said that - the Hussein looks nothing like the guy! Also, I didn't know Mugabe had the junior hitler stache
posted by spicynuts at 3:26 PM on August 1, 2008


It's a shop. I can tell from the pixels and from having seen quite a few shops in my time.


What? Oh.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 3:29 PM on August 1, 2008 [3 favorites]


is there a Godwin corollary for image galleries?
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 3:32 PM on August 1, 2008


Those were really great. Kind of reminds you that these monsters are just people.

Or, on a more pessimistic note, that all people could easily be monsters. They look great in the gallery, would love to see that.

Also, I didn't know Mugabe had the junior hitler stache

That's always freaked me out a bit. Hitlers you can understand, those taches were at least a bit fashionable at the time. Mugabes could only be a twisted homage surely (please correct me if I'm totally wrong, would love to know)
posted by twistedonion at 3:33 PM on August 1, 2008


I think the thing that creeps me out the most is that evidently none of them are wearing shirts.

It's a pool party and you're all invited!
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:34 PM on August 1, 2008 [3 favorites]


Saddam Hussein looks like a High School History Teacher.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:37 PM on August 1, 2008


I don't get it. What are we supposed to be looking for?
posted by tinkertown at 3:41 PM on August 1, 2008


Saddam Hussein looks like a High School History Teacher.

And Hitler looks like a petulant child.
posted by rooftop secrets at 3:42 PM on August 1, 2008


More info. When they say "composited", they mean "this guy has Hitler's nose", etc.
posted by smackfu at 3:55 PM on August 1, 2008


I don't get it. What are we supposed to be looking for?

I don't get your question. Why do you think you're supposed to be looking for something. It's art, Liebchen!
posted by found missing at 3:55 PM on August 1, 2008


No Pol Pot?
posted by fixedgear at 3:56 PM on August 1, 2008


I wish they threw Mr. Rogers in there.
posted by found missing at 3:58 PM on August 1, 2008


I don't get it. What are we supposed to be looking for?

I'd hope it was more the concept than the Photoshop skills. Same as Bonzai my first thought was that the artist was making a point about Monsters being people too or all people being monsters.
posted by twistedonion at 4:00 PM on August 1, 2008


pinochet looks nothing like pinochet.

also, why didn't you link to the main site?
posted by not sure this is a good idea at 4:00 PM on August 1, 2008


didn't hitler have blue eyes?!?!
posted by kuppajava at 4:07 PM on August 1, 2008


Why the blue-eyed Mugabe? I mean, his eyes in photos seem to be a pale brown. Are there lots of blue-eyed people in Zimbabwe? I just fell off this turnip truck, here, I got no idea.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 4:09 PM on August 1, 2008


I agree on Hitler's eye colour, but there's something going on. Mugabe very definitely does not have blue eyes, nor does he wear blue contacts.

(p.s. Stalin had terrible skin. Soviet photographers "corrected" this.)
posted by gesamtkunstwerk at 4:12 PM on August 1, 2008


Can someone please explain the point of this photoshop wankery? Does this FPP have any redeeming value?
posted by KokuRyu at 4:25 PM on August 1, 2008


What a sausage fest. Where are all the chicks?
posted by sportbucket at 4:26 PM on August 1, 2008


When they say "composited", they mean "this guy has Hitler's nose", etc.

How did it smell? evil?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:27 PM on August 1, 2008 [3 favorites]


fixedgear - pol pot is in the gallery - he just wasn't invited to the slideshow party.
posted by xorry at 4:31 PM on August 1, 2008 [1 favorite]


NAKED HITLER! The Third Reich unveils it's last ditch plan to save the Fatherland by making the Allies uncomfortable in a vaguely homoerotic way. The tables are turned when the mighty Red Army reveals... NAKED STALIN!

A Michael Bay and Joel Schumacher film.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:43 PM on August 1, 2008


If homoerotic naked Hitler is wrong, I don't wanna be Reich.
posted by kirkaracha at 4:53 PM on August 1, 2008 [8 favorites]


I'd hope it was more the concept than the Photoshop skills. Same as Bonzai my first thought was that the artist was making a point about Monsters being people too or all people being monsters.

God, I hope it was the mad photoshop skills. At least that's kind of interesting. Whereas the idea that some artist has spent weeks creating them to make a point that is, by now, incredibly dull and unoriginal, is too depressing to contemplate.

(On the other hand it looks like this is from Germany, so perhaps it's a point that needs to be made there repeatedly until the entire population can finally feel absolved of the things a few of their parents and grandparents did.)
posted by xchmp at 5:00 PM on August 1, 2008


No Pol Pot?

That's what I thought, too. Saddam Hussein and no Pol Pot? Damn, Pol Pot was one of the all-time top mass murderers.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:11 PM on August 1, 2008


Aaaaand, I just saw xorry's comment explaining that Pol Pot IS a part of the exhibit. Thanks for that link, xorry.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:14 PM on August 1, 2008


Saddam Hussein looks like a High School History Teacher.

When I was at school, one of the history teachers was the spitting image of Fidel Castro, right down to the shape of his beard. It was awesome - he had photos of the guy on his wall (also a genuine air raid shelter and various bits of WWII relics strewn around his tiny classroom - the ceiling was covered in flags and old lamps!), which led to his students asking him if that was him, and why he was in said foreign country. As if he led a Communist state in his spare time.
posted by saturnine at 5:16 PM on August 1, 2008


I think the thing that creeps me out the most is that evidently none of them are wearing shirts.

Yeah, it's kind of like they're all sitting around in a bath house.
posted by orange swan at 5:21 PM on August 1, 2008



The banality in their eyes kind of brings them down to size. Serves as a reminder that monstrous cruelty has an everyday face. Stalin loved babies, Hitler cried at the opera. Bush, I hear, is very charming.
posted by bukharin at 5:21 PM on August 1, 2008 [1 favorite]


bukharin, your point is exactly the point the artist is trying to make, I'd guess. That was the main point I took from it, anyway. The ordinary humanness of these humans.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:28 PM on August 1, 2008


If George W. Bush Had Been Around in 1937 and Had a Summit with Stalin:

"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straight forward and trustworthy and we had a very good dialogue.

"I was able to get a sense of his soul.

"He's a man deeply committed to his country and the best interests of his country and I appreciate very much the frank dialogue and that's the beginning of a very constructive relationship," Mr Bush said.

posted by languagehat at 5:50 PM on August 1, 2008 [1 favorite]


I never understood the attraction to Hitler. He looks kind of creepy to me.
posted by sluglicker at 6:39 PM on August 1, 2008


Why the blue-eyed Mugabe? I mean, his eyes in photos seem to be a pale brown.

Mugabe very definitely does not have blue eyes, nor does he wear blue contacts.


You two are wrong. Mugabe does have blue eyes.
posted by dgaicun at 7:32 PM on August 1, 2008


Big Pic.
posted by dgaicun at 7:36 PM on August 1, 2008


Why do they all look like Margaret Keane waifs?
posted by blucevalo at 9:38 PM on August 1, 2008


Stalin loved babies...

In particular when they were well done in a mustard sauce.
posted by sour cream at 11:33 PM on August 1, 2008 [2 favorites]


These are terrible.
posted by Henry C. Mabuse at 4:36 AM on August 2, 2008


I have a problem with the eyes, too. Not the colors, but the seeming lack of soullessness. Aren't our mass-murdering dictators supposed to have the blank look of a heartless killer, or is that the point?
posted by SteveTheRed at 7:45 AM on August 2, 2008


I'm unclear on the premise of constructing photographs of people who were (or in Mugabe's case, are) photographed. Unless it's for the "we're all humans! You can make our faces out of hundreds of other faces! All you need is Photoshop to understand the human condition that anyone is a monster and anyone is a normal person!" angle, I can't really see the point.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 8:41 AM on August 2, 2008 [1 favorite]


I think the thing that creeps me out the most is that evidently none of them are wearing shirts.

People with whom you'd least like to spend time in a hot tub.
posted by bwg at 5:35 PM on August 2, 2008


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