BORED TO DEATH @cum-puddle - Tumblr Blog

Freddie Mercury & Jim Hutton photographed with their cat Dorothy, 1980′s

When Freddie was diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, he offered Jim an exit on their relationship. He told Jim he would understand if he left. In a Freddie Mercury documentary, Jim recalls telling him, “I love you, Freddie - I’m not going anywhere.” And he didn’t; Jim stayed with Freddie until he died. He nursed him, cared for him, and was there when he took his last breath.

mary-alice-young

Desperate Housewives | Vanity Fair Photo Shoot

brooklynmuseum

Still portraits of athletes are the counterweight to the action and allow for reflection. There are many portraits of famous athletes, but there are also many indelible portraits of lesser-known or anonymous sports figures: the high school footballer, the amateur boxer, the struggling gymnast, the young bullfighter. The most sensitive photographers will find something that triggers the viewer’s admiration or understanding, or that provides emotional insight into the struggles and achievements of their individual subjects, famous or not.

In Lusha Nelson’s photograph of Joe Louis, he is portrated as strong and sensitive, due in large part to the modeling of his face and shoulders with beautiful light. Black boxers were the first athletes to break the color barrier of sports in America, and in the 1930s Louis became the first black athlete to achieve the status of a national hero.

The pictures of African Americans published in Vanity Fair during this time of segregation were often much more dignified than the words accompanying them. The written profile of Louis that appeared with this photograph, for example, contained a number of racist stereotypes.

Lusha Nelson (American, 1900–1938). Joe Louis, Vanity Fair, October 1935. Black and white photograph. Courtesy of Condé Nast Archive

nevver

The Last Days of Disco, Jesús León

weirdlandtv

Marilyn Monroe at night.

Photo by Ted Baron, 1954.

makeuphall

toryburch

dreamlogic

Annie Oakley’s heart target (One of Oakley’s most popular stunts was shooting through the center of a small, inch-wide heart on a card from around 40 feet away.)

Photograph by Annie Leibovitz, Pilgrimage (Random House, 2011)

wike-wabbits

Perfume bottle consisting of eight enameled glass bottles as orange segments, set in painted ceramic holder. (ca. 1925)

70rgasm

Stanley Kubrick taking a mirror selfie with his daughter, Vivian Kubrick, while Jack Nicholson thought it was a photo of him, on the set of The Shining, 1980.