Comments on: candid photos of famous people

candid photos of famous people

flex — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 07:56:39 -0800

"Extremely silly" photos of: "extremely serious" artists - "extremely serious" writers - "extremely serious" historical figures. Also 14 photos that shatter your image of famous people. A few images might be considered slightly NSFW.

As well there's the rare photos of famous people tumblr - and this large collection of "rare photos of famous people" part 1 through part 20.

By: Lemurrhea

Lemurrhea — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:04:33 -0800

I love that the 14 photos cracked article sneaks in a heartfelt description of what it's like to be suicidal in social settings in there. Also: I would totally bang Young Stalin. Even if I knew who he'd become. He's just that sexy.

By: echo target

echo target — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:09:31 -0800

Wow, Rene Magritte looked exactly like David Lynch. COINCIDENCE? yes

By: notsnot

notsnot — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:11:27 -0800

I've seen the Stalin one before, during a Wikipedia perambulation. The wife looked over my shoulder and said, "Young Stalin? I'd do him."

By: notsnot

notsnot — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:14:07 -0800

Oh, and

"Well, depression works that way. Movies have given us a skewed idea of how it works, because there, when a character enters his "dark period," it's with a montage full of sad music and drinking and moping in dim rooms. Real life isn't like that. Not only do moods fluctuate, but even when you're at your lowest you find yourself in social situations where you're not allowed to show it. If you're in a dark place but can't get out of your nephew's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, you're going to put on a smile for the camera. You feel selfish bringing everybody else down. You put on a cheerful mask."

...is one of the best descriptions of depression and the "you can't be depressed!" paradigm I've ever read.

By: WidgetAlley

WidgetAlley — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:18:14 -0800

The one of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor is pure gold. I wouldn't even have noticed they were mid-air if the tagline hadn't pointed it out, because their respective heights and expressions stay exactly the same. There's something very British about that.

By: TheAlarminglySwollenFinger

TheAlarminglySwollenFinger — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:31:45 -0800

While I'm not sure Will Self would ever be considered "extremely serious", I feel compelled to offer this picture from this year's Booker Prize, held two weeks ago, which Self did not win.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:35:06 -0800

One of my goals in life, since I was a little kid, was to never see a picture of Toulouse-Lautrec taking a shit. Oh well.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:39:19 -0800

I'm pretty sure that's just how Yves Klein lived his life.

By: Potomac Avenue

Potomac Avenue — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:39:27 -0800

David Wong continues to be amazing.

By: Devonian

Devonian — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:43:11 -0800

All good stuff (but think the basic thesis breaks down with the surrealists and HST). Would pay good money for one of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates in Tigger and Pooh Bear suits.

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:44:25 -0800

The photographer who took that photo of the Duke and Duchess reported once that he always ended his photo shoots by asking his subjects to jump like that - he just found it was a good way to end things on a cheerful note, and sometimes the photos were really fun. That pic of Hunter Thompson with the blow-up doll is actually a screenshot from a clip I've seen - apparently he and John Cusack and Johnny Depp just drove around with it for a while, with Hunter occasionally getting out of the car with it at stoplights and pretending to beat it up, just to freak people out. Cusack talked about it in a documentary about Hunter once and said the doll's name was "Ling Ling" or something.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 08:55:28 -0800

The Cracked writer calls Eminem in his pink Alf shirt his "favorite celebrity photo of all time". But it doesn't really shatter my image of Eminem, since Eminem, true to form, openly jokes about said shirt in his songs. (Sadly, the video makers could only find a "No Problem" pink Alf shirt, instead of the more gangsta "Hey, Nice Underwear" original.

By: whir

whir — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:00:56 -0800

I've always been fond of this photo of Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the back of an elephant.

By: The Card Cheat

The Card Cheat — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:01:16 -0800

What, no Trent Reznor in a marching band?

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:10:40 -0800

Oh Ruthie, why didn't you SHOVE HIM OFF.

By: elgilito

elgilito — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:17:25 -0800

The Awesomepeoplehangingouttogether tumblr have a double, triple or even quintuple dose of this.

By: Jehan

Jehan — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:21:42 -0800

Also: I would totally bang Young Stalin. Even if I knew who he'd become. He's just that sexy.

That foto is just so great. He looks like the lost member of Wham! Supposedly his skin was already badly pocked, which doesn't show there however. But still, if you think that at the same age Lenin looked like a balding factory clerk, it's clear which Bolshevik you would lump for.

By: the man of twists and turns

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:34:52 -0800

I would watch this movie.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:43:16 -0800

Seriously, tell me you can find any difference between the future president in the above photo and Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski: Rhodes Scholar.

By: TedW

TedW — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:43:50 -0800

Some of these are from Phillipe Halsman's Jumpology series, featured previously on MeFi

By: Marauding Ennui

Marauding Ennui — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:46:18 -0800

Theodor Adorno at the beach. Max Horkheimer partying.

By: SpacemanStix

SpacemanStix — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:46:59 -0800

Screenwriter Dalton Trumbo writing in the bath. This is one of those things that I always think would be awesome, but I've never actually done. I commit to giving this a try sometime in the next year. I hope I don't drop my computer in the water.

By: DU

DU — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:47:44 -0800

Charles Manson is the most famous serial killer of all time... imma let you finish but Jack the Ripper

By: Lorin

Lorin — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:48:04 -0800

The "14 Photos that shatter your image of famous people" lived up to its name: Bill Clinton has red hair? I say "has" because clearly he dyed it grey for electability. I think the last redheaded president that actually had red hair while in office was Van Buren and no president has ever worn a red beard. That picture is good proof why.

By: asnider

asnider — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:48:41 -0800

Most of these photos, while definitely silly, don't seem as out of character for the subjects as the headlines would suggest. I mean, Neil Gaiman wearing a Cthulhu hat? That doesn't surprise me in the least.

By: chavenet

chavenet — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 09:50:38 -0800

One of my goals in life, since I was a little kid, was to never see a picture of Toulouse-Lautrec taking a shit. Oh well. They didn't call him "Too Loose" for nothing, I see.

By: goethean

goethean — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:01:35 -0800

Nietzsche and Lou Salome

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:02:32 -0800

Theodor Adorno at the beach. "Ach! Is that sand? It is too hot. Why did I come here again? I hate the sea." Max Horkheimer partying. "Don't look at me- I like Jazz."

By: dhartung

dhartung — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:12:36 -0800

Why would anyone (who knows him even slightly) be surprised that Nabokov was hunting butterflies? He was a trained entomologist (his first job in the US was at the AMNH) and by no means a rank amateur, and his lepidoptery may, indeed, have been his greater passion. Perhaps a shot of him writing longhand on a legal pad along with the snickering caption "Russian-American naturalist V. Nabokov tries his hand at the Great American Novel".

By: misha

misha — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:14:23 -0800

I thought Humphrey Bogart would be cool, but he is totally looking down Marilyn Monroe's dress in this photo. He and Lauren Bacall look like they got ambushed there, though, too, like Marilyn sat down next to them and pretended to be having a raucously good time just for the photo.

By: jb

jb — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 10:23:19 -0800

I've seen the Stalin one before, during a Wikipedia perambulation. The wife looked over my shoulder and said, "Young Stalin? I'd do him." He was already pretty brutal and insane -- I wonder if it showed when you talked to him?

By: languagehat

languagehat — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:08:31 -0800

Tsar Nicholas II and another royal friend playing airplane, c. 1890. Just to be annoyingly picky: Nicky wasn't tsar until 1894. Joseph Stalin making a face at his bodyguard. Photo by Lt. Gen. Nikolai Vlasik, c. 1930. He liked Vlasik so much he waited till 1952 to have him arrested!

By: MuffinMan

MuffinMan — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:15:20 -0800

Twopoos Lootrek. Amirite?

By: RobotVoodooPower

RobotVoodooPower — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:22:12 -0800

Writers and Kitties, previously mentioned.

By: PeterMcDermott

PeterMcDermott — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:31:47 -0800

Twopoos Lootrek. Twopoos NoLootrek, surely?

By: Nomyte

Nomyte — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:34:00 -0800

I don't get the point about the skin on Stalin's face. Violent people don't "look evil." No one looks evil. For example, no one caught on to me until it was way too late.

By: munchingzombie

munchingzombie — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:41:25 -0800

That photo of Nico and Warhol dressed as Batman and Robin fills me with so much happiness I might burst.

By: bendybendy

bendybendy — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 11:50:57 -0800

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

By: pracowity

pracowity — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:01:15 -0800

OK, we've seen extremely silly. Can we now see extremely sexy?

By: TheWhiteSkull

TheWhiteSkull — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:06:55 -0800

OK, we've seen extremely silly. Can we now see extremely sexy? Yes...yes you may.

By: Malice

Malice — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:07:10 -0800

What, no Trent Reznor in a marching band? That was way back when talent actually meant something and the unpopular kids could grow up to rock your face off. Now it's semi-steroided bullies with the same 4-chord song to sing.

By: humboldt32

humboldt32 — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:16:39 -0800

Even if one was never taught anything about using a horizontal rule, isn't it plainly obvious that that's not correct‽‽

By: Malice

Malice — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:28:17 -0800

Even if one was never taught anything about using a horizontal rule, isn't it plainly obvious that that's not correct‽‽ If you're talking about my comment, you're probably right, I'm just being bitter and curmudgeonly. _{_{Now back to shaking my cain on the front porch at all the kids on my lawn.}}

By: oflinkey

oflinkey — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:45:22 -0800

Man, that Gordon-Levitt kid is everywhere....oh, that's Alex Trebek.

By: book 'em dano

book 'em dano — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:54:00 -0800

Wow, that is not what I thought Edward Gorey looked like.

By: JennyJupiter

JennyJupiter — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 12:54:33 -0800

David Bowie is the is the best part of most of these photos.

By: Iteki

Iteki — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:19:56 -0800

A lot of this stuff links back to my favourite unfortunately titled site: www.thisisnotporn.net, so might as well thrown them a link in here. Works wonderfully with flippad if you like that kinda thing. I am always highly entertained by photos of Einstein in unexpected footwear.

By: Danf

Danf — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:24:28 -0800

Some of these are from Phillipe Halsman's Jumpology series, featured previously on MeFi When I was a kid, my mom got that book as a giveaway from a bank. A few years ago, I found it in her house and adopted it, and still have it. It is very fun to page through. . .Apparently, at the end of every shoot, Halsman asked his subjects to do one jumping photo, mostly for shits and giggles.

By: Stagger Lee

Stagger Lee — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:32:29 -0800

By what definition is Neil Gaiman an "extremely serious" writer?

By: fings

fings — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:53:04 -0800

Here are some photos to shatter your image of a famous person: David Bowie being normal.

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 14:47:00 -0800

Anyone else getting a Joseph Gordon-Levitt vibe from this pic of Alex Trebek (fr. p. 2 of the Cracked link)? Yow.

By: mumimor

mumimor — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 14:56:28 -0800

Young Stalin, young Lucien Freud, young Clinton - whew - all I knew was these old kind of creepy guys. Well Stalin was of course worse than creepy. When you see these pictures, you get what all the hype was about..

By: letitrain

letitrain — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:29:19 -0800

One of my goals in life, since I was a little kid, was to never see a picture of Toulouse-Lautrec taking a shit. Oh well. Four pictures of said shit, even.

By: helmutdog

helmutdog — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:53:23 -0800

That's Grace Coddington behind Karl Lagerfield. One of the big powers at American Vogue.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 16:14:06 -0800

This seems familiar.

By: smirkette

smirkette — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 18:32:49 -0800

Karl Lagerfeld looking like an extremely chic gangster, 1974. I'm sorry, I thought this was standard practice for Karl Lagerfeld.

By: smirkette

smirkette — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 18:38:47 -0800

(also: that portrait of Keith Haring is kind of perfect; the only thing interesting about Toulouse-Latrec taking a dump is that he consented to the photographs; and it makes perfect sense that Dali and Warhol would be in a picture together. May I submit this picture of Dali riding Walt Disney's private miniature train, the Lilly Belle, conducted by animator Ward Kimball. Amusing side note: the a few commenters incorrectly ID Dali as Walt's brother Roy, who handled the company's business affairs.)

By: hurdy gurdy girl

hurdy gurdy girl — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 20:17:55 -0800

Sighing now at my dorky redundant comment after suddenly seeing oflinkey's. I did read the thread before posting, I swear. But yeah, Joseph Gordon-Levitt! Plus Alex Trebek *swoons*

By: DarlingBri

DarlingBri — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 23:04:17 -0800

shatter your image of famous people. None of these did that. Famous people are just like non-famous people except for the famous part. They dance and kick cans and love Grover and have hobbies. I don't get why that is a surprise to folks. David Bowie being normal. He used to at least occasionally pick his step-daughter up from school; she was five or six years behind me and I noticed him a couple of times.

By: humboldt32

humboldt32 — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 01:26:08 -0800

If you're talking about my comment... . posted by Malice at 12:28 PM on October 29 [+] [!] Nope. I was talking about the poorly used horizontal rule/caption combo under each of those images on the flavorwire site.

By: Kit W

Kit W — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 05:57:57 -0800

Wow, it's almost like artists are real people who sometimes do normal things. Who knew?! :-p

By: j_curiouser

j_curiouser — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:09:57 -0800

Claire Quilty?

By: deborah

deborah — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 00:36:21 -0800

notsnot: "Oh, and
"Well, depression works that way. Movies have given us a skewed idea of how it works, because there, when a character enters his "dark period," it's with a montage full of sad music and drinking and moping in dim rooms. Real life isn't like that. Not only do moods fluctuate, but even when you're at your lowest you find yourself in social situations where you're not allowed to show it. If you're in a dark place but can't get out of your nephew's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese's, you're going to put on a smile for the camera. You feel selfish bringing everybody else down. You put on a cheerful mask."
...is one of the best descriptions of depression and the "you can't be depressed!" paradigm I've ever read." As I said a while back, "People with depression are the best actors you'll ever meet."

By: IAmBroom

IAmBroom — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 06:49:48 -0800

misha: I thought Humphrey Bogart would be cool, but he is totally looking down Marilyn Monroe's dress in this photo.

Your link got borked, but fortunately a GIS for "Humphrey Bogart would be cool, but he is totally looking down Marilyn Monroe's dress" works just fine. The phrase "extremely serious", like most usages of the word "extreme" (and its variants), is pathetically invalid. I think the phrase the author meant was "some":

"Some silly photos of some celebrities."

By: EmpressCallipygos

EmpressCallipygos — Sat, 03 Nov 2012 06:51:55 -0800

Your link got borked, but fortunately a GIS for "Humphrey Bogart would be cool, but he is totally looking down Marilyn Monroe's dress" works just fine. A link to just the image in question.