Monday, March 14, 2005

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The non-smoking Sartre, Pollock and Robert Johnson



BoingBoing recently posted an image and a few links showing doctored photographs, doctored for the well being of the subjects, perhaps: smokers became non-smokers as they all had the cigarettes removed from their images. Its interesting to watch the broader cultural machine re-write history, to see how laws are changed regarding advertising smoking which has ramifications onto posters for teenage walls and exhibitions for the edification of the middle class - effectively policing the subject like other regimes we'd rather distance ourselves from, but indirectly:

The library's president, Jean-Noël Jeanneney, confirmed that the cigarette had been discreetly smudged to comply with the 1991 loi Evin - a law banning tobacco advertising - but also so as not to frighten away potential sponsors from the exhibition, which opened yesterday.


(from the telegraph article linked above)

Update: Image of Johnson removed at owner's 'request'.


posted by andrew atkinson at 7:44 AM  

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