Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Lives in Images....

Martin Sheen and Ava Gardner

Leonard Bernstein and Glenn Gould

Miles Davis and Jeanne Moreau

Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir

George Burns and Ray Bradbury

Mia Farrow and Frank Sinatra

Phil Silvers and Zero Mostel

Brendan Behan and Jackie Gleason

Milton Berle and Marlene Dietrich

I don't know what it is precisely about these images that caught my attention. Certainly some of the pairings are incongruous - Gleason and Behan, Burns and Bradbury and so forth - but the apparant incongruity is a superficial one. It is more a kind of unmasking of the celebrity persona and suggests a closer peek at the person inside. Others, the one of Phil Silvers and Zero Mostel, suggest the furnace of energy that fuled the comedy of both men.

It is simply pleasing to see Sartre and de Beauvoir smiling together. It reminds me of their graves, side by side in the cemetery at Montparnasse, a weathered pack of Kool cigarettes and lighter left by some flowers.

Some of the images present all sorts of questions. I know, for example, exactly what I will ask Martin Sheen if I ever meet him.

4 comments:

Your driver said...

Are you familiar with a photoblog called If Charlie Parker Was A Gunslinger, There Would Be A Whole Lot Of Dead Copycats ? Nothing but images like these. I look forward to new posts from them.
http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/

Stan Denski said...

Yes! That's where these come from and I put it together so fast I forgot to add a link!!! Thanks! These were ones that really grabbed my attention and I liked that they are all sort of duets.

Your driver said...

Yes, they looked familiar. By the way, the haiku at the post above is a hoot.

Stan Denski said...

Thanks. AND it's original!