the cigarette vanishes
The strange history of politicized photography.
Josef Stalin must be credited for his thoroughness. The former Josef Dzhugashvili remade his own image with a mere name change. Understanding completely the power of the image, official photography in Stalinist Russia was regularly doctored, altered, or fabricated in order to fit the reality captured by the camera to Communist ideology.
David King, photographer and former editor at the London Sunday Times magazine, demonstrated the fluid nature of Stalin-era photography in his book The Commissar Vanishes. Of particular note is the complete disappearance of Stalin's adversary Leon Trotsky.
No one would confuse American poster manufacturers for the Soviet government, but they too are remaking history to suit a political end. They have airbrushed the cigarette from Paul McCartney's hand on poster prints of the album cover of the Beatles 1969 work Abbey Road. Without consulting Apple Records, who own the rights to the image, allposters.com (and others) have removed the offending item.
Oddly, there are precedents for this behavior. Capitol Records, the Beatles American record label, has removed images of cigarettes from the cover of the "Real Love" single and the 1984 reissue of "I Want to Hold Your Hand."
One wonders if this will encourage anti-gun activists to push for a new title for the Beatles 1966 album Revolver.
01.02.2003 © ljr