February 8, 2019

Celine Liu edits herself into old photographs of celebrities...

"I think people who show up on the screen are glorious.... So this series was created to fulfill my childhood wish, which was to become an icon by standing with the stars," she said. So we see her with Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. And she also puts herself on the scene with intellectuals — Albert Einstein, Frida Kahlo, and Simone de Beauvoir.



Did you think Simone de Beauvoir would shoot a gun... like that?

IN THE COMMENTS:

Example: Alex said:
Kirby Jenner, the "Fraternal Twin of Kendall Jenner" is a brilliant parody Instagram account where he pastes himself into photos of Kendall. I couldn't care less about the Kardashians but I am fascinated by the fashion and Photoshop skills on display.
Ha ha. Great! So much more fun than Celine Liu. I enjoyed them all — here — but let me pick out one.



AND: Well, you can probably tell I picked that one because of my longstanding "men in shorts" theme. So let me give you this one too, because it has another one of my themes:

68 comments:

Wince said...

I'm waiting for the photo of Adam Schiff urinating on Donald Trump on a bed in a Moscow hotel room.

walter said...

"my childhood wish, which was to become an icon by standing with the stars,"
That's...unique

mccullough said...

Looks like Simone shoots by using The Force. Explains why the French Resistance was so ineffectual. You can smoke a cigarette with your eyes closed but it’s much harder to shot a gun that way.

Howard said...

Inverting the Stalin memory-hole photoshop trick.

Laslo Spatula said...

Simone de Beauvoir 'aiming' that gun is the perfect visual representation of the issues raised in the "From elementary school through college, girls are more disciplined about their schoolwork than boys; they study harder and get better grades" post.

Probably not intentional.

I am Laslo.

tcrosse said...

Woody Allen did this in 1983 in Zelig.

etbass said...

That is not a pistol that I recognize. Could be a weakness of the photo but it looks like a B-B gun more than a real firearm.

Alex said...

Kirby Jenner, the "Fraternal Twin of Kendall Jenner" is a brilliant parody Instagram account where he pastes himself into photos of Kendall.
I couldn't care less about the Kardashians but I am fascinated by the fashion and Photoshop skills on display.

Rockeye said...

Looking more closely at the photograph I can see that the end of the barrel is obscured by the gasses being pushed out of it as the gun has just been fired. In fact the dark spot in the middle could be the tip of the bullet poking through. The handgun is likely to be at least a .32 caliber or 9mm of some sort.

Paul Zrimsek said...

What the hell are you doing, Simone? Jean-Paul's a hard enough target to hit even with your eyes open.

SeanF said...

Althouse: Did you think Simone de Beauvoir would shoot a gun... like that?

She did.

All Liu did was replace Sartre with herself.

It was a fairgrounds game, though, so almost certainly just an airgun.

Paul said...

You are supposed to shoot with both eyes OPEN.. not closed. Hint hint..

Ken B said...

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Horrible technique! She'll be lucky if she's within ten feet of the target. So the last thing Simone needed was a hand pushing her shoulder forward.

Ken B said...

Pointless but — and this may be the point — purposefully respectful. That's not the usual attitude now, which embraces disdain and contempt for everything in the past.

J Scott said...

It's parlour pistol. Usually in .22/5mm

You can see an example here.

https://www.cowanauctions.com/lot/german-single-shot-parlor-pistol-186412

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

"Stolen gold is better than earned gold."

ELC said...

Anybody could do this photoshopping, but it takes a special, self-involved, really self-important, really really special individual to even think of doing it.

Rockeye said...

And this is exactly how I would imagine her to fire a handgun.

J. Farmer said...

This is a shooting gallery gun taken at a fair in Porte d'Orléans in 1929. You can see the original photo with Jean-Paul Sartre here.

stevew said...

Forrest Gump.

Known Unknown said...

"Did you think Simone de Beauvoir would shoot a gun... like that?"

Did you think Celine Liu would just stand there so solemnly and casual as a gun was being fired ... like that?

J. Farmer said...

Oops. My comment's a day late and a dollar short.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

Wow. When you look at the original, she did nothing but deface it. I guess this is all about disappearing white men from our history.

Known Unknown said...

A former co-worker of mine used to Photoshop his family into scenes of famous Xmas movies for their Christmas cards. He was good at it, too.

He also photoshopped himself (he is a White White White Mormon) in the back of a lowrider with a bunch of guys from perhaps Compton? Hilarious.

Fernandinande said...

The requested page "/existential-photography" could not be found.

Ha ha.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Annie Get Your Gun-- Squeeze

She goes for her medical
She's passed, it's a miracle

Don't pull that trigger
(Annie, get your gun)
Don't shoot that singer
(You're shooting number one)
Number one, number one

rcocean said...

Hilarious. The B&W photos look better. THE MM photo doesn't come off for some reason.
Although, I like the Princess Di one.

rcocean said...

Einstein looks girlish in his photo so the photoshop is a good fit.

Quaestor said...

Did you think Simone de Beauvoir would shoot a gun... like that?

Of course, she would, exactly like that. She's got her eyes closed. She's thinking much more of herself than of what or who might be downrange. De Beauvoir was a big fucking C Communist and an unapologetic apologist for Stalin and all his works. Commies don't give a fuck who they shoot.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Celine is just trying to show that she's prettier than some famous dead people.

Fernandinande said...

Inverting the Stalin memory-hole photoshop trick.

A silly Lenin photoshop trick. Please take note of the frog.

Quaestor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sebastian said...

"Did you think Simone de Beauvoir would shoot a gun... like that?"

Umm, yes--ineptly, like a girly girl. After all, that's how the second sex stayed in second place for so long.

"From elementary school through college, girls are more disciplined about their schoolwork than boys; they study harder and get better grades."

Yes, that was our Simone. Though she tried hard to compensate by hanging out with bad boys. How long before #MeToo retroactively deals with Jean-Paul et al.?

Quaestor said...

Could be a weakness of the photo but it looks like a B-B gun more than a real firearm.

It looks like one of these, a Piot-Lepage dueling pistol, which was designed to fire a wax bullet for use in non-lethal sporting duels, something like a paintball gun except that it used gunpowder rather than CO2. The handguard was removable, btw.

Quaestor said...

The West is never going to cleanse its collective soul until the likes of De Beauvoir and Sartre are treated with the exact degree of contempt as Josef Goebbels is now.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

Hallmark of the Millennial generation; they don't create, they curate. The don't surmount obstacles, they just buy all the gear and pose.

Just asking questions (Jaq) said...

Sometimes you really begrudge a click, this is one of those times I wish I could have my click back.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

"Notoriety Appropriation"

The Nobody's Side-door to Fame

Matt said...

"Did you think Simone de Beauvoir would shoot a gun... like that?"

Yes, and apparently she hit the target. That's the only way to trigger the camera. http://www.critical-theory.com/yeehaw-beauvoir-and-sartres-shooting-guns-together/

William said...

Simone de Beauvoir, Katherine Hepburn, Hannah Arendt, Emma Goldman: a great many feminist icons were in abusive relationships. I only have superficial knowledge of the Kardashians, but my understanding is that they come out ahead in their affairs. Perhaps feminists should look to the Kardashians for guidance in such matters.

Matt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

Simone de Beauvoir wrote the very tedious The Second Sex and then let her paramour Sartre run around on her with every woman under the Sun--she was a class-A wimp masquerading as a Tough Woman.

Meanwhile, Sartre was a Commie doubling as a Nazi during the Occupation so he could be left alone by the Germans (and he was).

If that was "working for the Resistance," I'm Leon Blum.

Birches said...

That Instagram account is amazing.

Ralph L said...

Shorts should be OK with a long-sleeve turtleneck, especially a pink one. He won't be mistaken for a kid.

walter said...

I have a Bernie bro hipster "friend" on Facebook who looks like he could be Kirb's bro...including the 'stache. He occasionally posts photos of his elated self with his 3 rats crawling over his shoulders and head.

JohnAnnArbor said...

Isn't that all a little self-absorbed?

JohnAnnArbor said...

Meade, if it's really warm in the summer, are you allowed to wear shorts?

Howard said...

he does look a bit like david swimmer who played his granddad on the oj miniseries

alanc709 said...

Sartre and de Beauvoir were nazi collaborators. They get a pass on that because they were French glitterati.

rhhardin said...

I don't know any of the Kardashians by sight but that looked like Sandra Bullock to me, except too much breast maybe if you start studying.

Ralph L said...

if it's really warm in the summer, are you allowed to wear shorts?
Yes, there are exceptions for sports and hot weather. The temp/humidity cutoff is still unspecified at this juncture.

Ann Althouse said...

To keep to my men in shorts theme, I should have chosen Liu’s photo with Einstein.

Bill Peschel said...

That Kenner account was brilliant. Totally self-absorbed, but he's a giver, too.

Bill Peschel said...

OK, now I'm wondering if this is a set-up from the Kardashians, because this video ... I mean, who has the time and money to put this together?

https://www.instagram.com/p/BgpENaXDSi_/

Molly said...

(eaglebeak)

alanc709: Yes, absolutely. That's why the German occupiers went to opening nights of Sartre's crummy plays (like Huis Clos or No Exit)....

In the tension between Being and Nothingness, Sartre definitely voted for Nothingness.

J. Farmer said...

@Ralph L:

Yes, there are exceptions for sports and hot weather. The temp/humidity cutoff is still unspecified at this juncture.

Sports, yes. Weather, no. That’s what cotton chinos are for. Or if you don’t mind people thinking you’re gay, linen pants.

walter said...

I did a quick shopping run last night at around 10pm. This was maybe 20 minutes from Madison. Between the temp and the wind, it was brutal, even in full winter outfit. A dude in his 50's was checking out in winter coat, readers and shorts.
At that point, I get the sense it's supposed to be some kind of attention getter/conversation starter.

JZ said...

The s Econ’s theme? Something to do with small dogs or big rats?

JZ said...

Second theme, I mean.

JohnAnnArbor said...

I did a quick shopping run last night at around 10pm. This was maybe 20 minutes from Madison. Between the temp and the wind, it was brutal, even in full winter outfit. A dude in his 50's was checking out in winter coat, readers and shorts.

I have a neighbor who was outside this morning in below-15 weather with wind, t-shirt and shorts. Not first time.

Not sure if layer of insulating fat really helps there.....

Maillard Reactionary said...

tim in vermont: Thanks for the warning. I was so close...

Nice to see Jean-Paul and his fuck-buddy getting some of the love they deserve here.

JaimeRoberto said...

What's he doing to that flamingo?

Bilwick said...

Register Existentialists, not Guns!

PM said...

Kendall Jenner, how you Americans say, has it going on.

Leora said...

It's exactly how I would expect Simone de Beauvoir to shoot a gun. She wrote like an intelligent adult but lived her life like a ditzy girl.

Ambrose said...

Woody Allen did this 40 years ago.

Sam L. said...

Shooting with one's eyes closed is not recommended practice, Simone.