Iconic Photos

October 26, 2009 9:05 AM

Iconic Photos
posted by Joe Beese (28 comments total)

More like iconic copyright violation, amirite?
posted by infinitefloatingbrains at 9:15 AM on October 26, 2009

I suspect that these photos are being used legally under the "fair use" aspect of copyright law... but hey, you beat everyone else in this thread with a snark, that's got to be worth something, amirite?

Joe... nice post... will be an interesting read...
posted by HuronBob at 9:20 AM on October 26, 2009

One of the The Marlboro Men came and talked to my Junior High in the early 1990s, and told us how smoking killed the nerves in half of his body, amongst other things, which provided for a humorous set-up with his daughters stabbing his deadened leg with forks (though the youngest would sometimes mistake his right and left sides). I don't really remember what he looked like, but I think he was still something of that rugged image. Since then, I've thought of the Marlboro Man walking around with forks stuck in his legs, not realizing anything was amiss.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:21 AM on October 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

Interesting blog and good post. When I first saw this I thought it was going to be some spammy google ads-laden deal with the photo of Oswald getting shot and other things of that ilk. Happy to be proved wrong.
posted by marxchivist at 9:26 AM on October 26, 2009

Interesting blog. I found the story of Maggie Trudeau particularly interesting. I had never heard of her.
posted by lazaruslong at 9:30 AM on October 26, 2009

I just got sucked in for 10 minutes of reading about Maggie Trudeau, Ceausescu, and more... Great stuff, but I have work to do.

(The little occasional errors in English make me think the writer/blogger/collector is not a native speaker. Things like "factoid: but only three of them succumbed to lungs cancer" distract me, what can I say?)
posted by yiftach at 9:38 AM on October 26, 2009

Jeez.

This is like a cross between If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger... and Futility Closet, thanks!
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 9:54 AM on October 26, 2009

infinitefloatingbrains: "More like iconic copyright violation, amirite?"

Meta.
posted by Mitheral at 10:06 AM on October 26, 2009

Interesting blog.
posted by KokuRyu at 10:09 AM on October 26, 2009

They don't really seem like iconic photographs, but more like history event photographs. The highlight isn't really on the photos, it's on the event.
posted by smackfu at 10:14 AM on October 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

Even before [Maggie Trudeau] finally separated from her allegedly gay husband in 1977

What?? I have never heard even a rumour of homosexuality about Pierre! Am I completely out of the loop?
posted by saucysault at 10:49 AM on October 26, 2009 [2 favorites]

Awesome find.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:52 AM on October 26, 2009

Well thank god the pic of Margaret Trudeau was with that person and not a shirtless Ted Kennedy.
posted by stormpooper at 11:02 AM on October 26, 2009

>What?? I have never heard even a rumour of homosexuality about Pierre! Am I completely out of the loop?
I have never heard of that either, saucy.

I think it is an editing error. I think that PET had been investiagted by the FBI and the FBI investigated anti-establishment activity (communism, homosexuality, etc.) but "alledgly homosexual" as it appears here has a different connotation.

The last sentence
>She was also associated with Rolling Stone’s Mick Jagger and U.S. Senator, Ted Kennedy.
is a bit sloppy with the extra apostrophe and extra comma.
and
>but the public learnt about this dramatic fashion,
we weren't learning about her fashion (although the tube socks and gym shorts is dramatic fashion, haha) but it should be, maybe: this in dramatic fashion. I vote editing.
posted by philfromhavelock at 11:20 AM on October 26, 2009

What?? I have never heard even a rumour of homosexuality about Pierre!

Same, unless narcissism counts as a form of sexuality. Still, there's a fair bit of CanCon on the site, always nice too see.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:25 AM on October 26, 2009

... counts as a form of homosexuality, rather.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:26 AM on October 26, 2009

I double-clicked on all of these photos but no applications started up. False advertising.
posted by GuyZero at 11:56 AM on October 26, 2009 [1 favorite]

I've been looking for a picture of François Mitterand's wife and mistress together at his funeral for ages and here it is, with illegitimate daughter thrown in as a bonus. Nice collection-- thanks for posting!
posted by Heretic at 12:10 PM on October 26, 2009

I just got sucked in for 10 minutes of reading about Maggie Trudeau...

The joke Canadians used to tell when Pierre was prime minister: What's the difference between Maggie and Pierre Trudeau?

Maggie's fucking Canadians one at a time.
posted by fatbird at 1:09 PM on October 26, 2009

during [the] 1911 census, she hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster overnight so that on the census form she could legitimately give her place of residence as the “House of Commons”...

2010 is just a few months away...
posted by clorox at 7:17 PM on October 26, 2009

yep, it's not really about the photos, but these are well written summaries of interesting stories. Thanks, Joe, I think I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the night.
posted by milestogo at 8:36 PM on October 26, 2009

Damn...3 hours just went by working my way backward on that blog. thequintessentialwriter is good. ty OP.
posted by rmmcclay at 7:55 AM on October 27, 2009

Maybe it's just my Canuck roots, but the Trudeaus are pretty darn iconic to me.

Great find, Joe, thanks for posting.
posted by futureisunwritten at 8:05 AM on October 27, 2009

In March 1993, photographer Kevin Carter made a trip to southern Sudan, where he took now iconic photo of a vulture preying upon an emaciated Sudanese toddler near the village of Ayod. Carter said he waited about 20 minutes, hoping that the vulture would spread its wings. It didn’t. Carter snapped the haunting photograph and chased the vulture away. (The parents of the girl were busy taking food from the same UN plane Carter took to Ayod).


Fuck. I appreciate photojournalism, but ... fuck. I wish someone else had been there to photograph Carter waiting, camera in hand, while a child was literally starving in front of his eyes. "Waiting for the vulture to spread its wings." Christ almighty.

The blogger's comments continue: Carter eventually won the Pulitzer Prize for this photo, but he couldn’t enjoy it. At the risk of repeating myself: Christ almighty.

(Yes, I kept reading and yes, it's awful he committed suicide, but still.)
posted by scratch at 2:54 PM on October 27, 2009

That's the kind of thing that diverted me from photojournalism. I don't have the fortitude to sit there and let bad things happen.
posted by Mitheral at 6:32 PM on October 27, 2009

Mith, "fortitude" is a very interesting choice of word. (No criticism of you meant here.) Is it fortitude? Is it an artist's tunnel-vision ambition? Is it simple crass opportunism? Photojournalism is so compelling and so ethically fraught.
posted by scratch at 6:26 AM on October 28, 2009

I recognize some of these from this book about Pulitzer Prize-winning photos, which I have. Most of the photos are of sad or horrible incidents. "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." -- Leo Tolstoy.
posted by kirkaracha at 9:18 AM on October 28, 2009

"'fortitude' is a very interesting choice of word"

I was thinking in the "strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage" sense. The mental anguish that must accrue seeing someone starving to death, or necklaced (Ok that's nightmares for a week) and really being unable to do anything about it but report is unimaginable to me. Considering the text of his suicide note on wikipedia it appeared to weigh heavily on him.

Now excuse me I have an appointment with the brain bleach.
posted by Mitheral at 11:16 PM on October 29, 2009