Round here we celebrate photographs. While they sometimes tell stories of love and laughter, they also sometimes tell stories of sadness, horror, or otherwise unsavory-ness. These mugshots of some of the most famous rock stars the world has ever known fall somewhere in between. Check out the confluence of stoicism, ego, and genius in this shot of Frank Sinatra (other greats from Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Sid Vicious, David Bowie, Axl Rose and a dozen others after the jump…]
These images clearly have cultural value. Are these portraits? Where does the mugshot fit along this spectrum?
So I ask you again. Are these portraits?
[and if, like me, you can’t get enough of these, head on over to HowToBeARetronaut to see Janis Joplin, Bill Gates, Jane Fonda, Kurt Cobain, Dennis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, and about a dozen others. Thanks FlavorPill for the tip.]
clearly there are portraits and I also think they show the respective artists even as real people. thank
Greetings from the doc 😉
martin
i’d say they are technically portraits, and personally i think they are wonderful representations of specific moments of these people’s lives.
You know at first I was going to say no way. But after looking at them more I say yes they are portraits. Portraits are a way to preserve a moment in someone’s life and tell a story about them at that particular moment in time. These tell more of a story than a lot of the portraits I’ve taken and seen. They show the person’s soul good or bad.
Yes! These are portraits! Don’t take my word for it look it up http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait By definition! Too great… I’m addicted now
Time is a huge factor with these. Mugshots do not look like these anymore. The aesthetic of the time (as we perceive it since everyone loves vintage now) and possibly them even being film might matter in this case (though film is not “required” to make a good portrait by any means whatsoever). Also, what the viewer brings to the viewing experience matters. Can we most certainly say that their relative fame then and now does not impact how we view the portraits? I would say no. Many current celebrity photographers are quite mediocre but that is ignored because of the fan’s perceived emotional connection to the star matters more than the image itself.
But I have to say these are nicely made, especially the first one.