Photo by Billy Name; All Images Courtesy Of The Impossible Cool
What do Tom Waits, David Lynch, Debbie Harry, and Mark Twain all have in common?
They’re all…ahem…impossibly cool. And they’ve all been featured on The Impossible Cool, a must-follow Tumblr account that offers gorgeous, mostly black-and-white, amazing portraits of some of the most bad-ass tastemakers of the last couple centuries.
Ranging from politicians to celebs to writers to musicians, The Impossible Cool leaves no rockstar unturned, but most of all, the photography is simple (and simpLY) remarkable. No crazy lighting, no gimmicks, no BS. Just honest, great portraits. Click thru a selection of my favorite shots via the image tabs above to see what I mean. My favorite is probably the shot a few clicks in of Miles Davis…
Photography existed long long before the digital push came!
A nice set of portraits. I don’t want to state the obvious but a large part of the ‘look’ of these images and what makes them stand out is because they’re shot on film. Pay attention kids.
These are fantastic photos.
It makes me stop and think of how different we would look at these people if they were in today’s world with the over saturation of media coverage. What makes these photos so cool is the fact that they have had limited exposure. Some of them I have seen before and others are being viewed for the first time. That is increasingly rare these days, when a celeb sneezes its shot, uploaded, color corrected and sent across the globe.
I think it looses its cool quality when that happens today. These hold a certain weight that today doesn’t have.
One word: Miles.
These are amazing. Thanks!!
Chef! “Helloo children!”
Oops I meant this comment for the photo of Issac Hays. Some of them are not labeled with names and so I’m guessing as to who they are, but pretty sure I’ve pegged them.