Well done to find that image, Anthony! Now it looks like the artist has "improved" the shot to hint at her smoking habit. Not sure if I accept the tampering yet, but all of a sudden the stamp pic is more in the same class as is the Shoe Incident with Nikita Khrushchev... Although this is more cleverly done. I was certainly "had". :-)
Best, Jostein 2008/10/13 Anthony Farr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Prompted by Jos's efforts, I found the base image here: > http://classicmoviefavorites.com/davis/davis051.jpg > It also happens to be the image on the cover of "Bette Davis Speaks" as > pictured on Amazon.com. Even though the image has differently posed hands, > I overlaid one on the other and found that Davis's face is 100% identical in > both. The problem is that there is no cigarette in this shot, so I'm left > with egg on my face and with much diminished respect for Roger Ebert who has > apparently misled me. > > Still, I'm not too sure. WTF, I wonder, was the artist thinking when he > altered Davis's hand to a position that seemed to hold an invisible > cigarette when the "source" image unequivocally lacked a cigarette. But I'm > not so certain that the book image is the source. The tonality of the glove > is strange, and the coat looks patchy where Davis's hand would be according > to the postage stamp version. > > I suspect that Bette Davis's smoking has been censored both times. The book > cover version has concealed her smoking habit as much as airbrush retouching > could achieve. Paradoxically, the modern artist has very likely made the > truer rendition by leaving the cigarette's omission evident. > > It's a shame that the oldest findable version of this picture is the > biography cover. The original studio release would settle any doubts. > > BTW the Robert Johnson portrait is without a doubt the same picture that has > been massaged so that it fits better onto a postage stamp. > > Regards, Anthony > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of >> AlunFoto >> Sent: Monday, 13 October 2008 9:42 PM >> To: Pentax-Discuss Mail List >> Subject: Re: OT - Govt Agency doctors photograph to sanitize history >> >> I will moderate my stance on this one. Spent the lunch break zooming >> through a couple of internet databases on stills from Bette Davis >> career. There was a link to a youTube clip from "All about Eve" on the >> original blogpost, which came close as a possible inspiration for the >> stamp, where she's wearing the same coat, haircut and mittens. However >> if this is the source, the stamp must be regarded as an independent >> work of art however photorealistic it seems. >> >> So only one question remains. Would depicting Bette Davis with a >> cigarette in hand on a stamp actually promote smoking? I don't think >> so, but I'm open to arguments... :-) >> >> best, >> Jostein >> > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ http://alunfoto.blogspot.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
