About the photo:

George Tames covered Washington D.C for four decades (1945-1985) and is best remembered for one, “The Loneliest Job,” a photograph of President John F. Kennedy looking out of the south window of the oval office. Tames took the photograph through the door of the Oval Office, after Kennedy thought he had left. From behind, it looks as if he is carrying the weight of the world. Kennedy – who had a bad back – simply was reading the newspapers standing up, as he often preferred to do.[…]

Although the photo was taken on Feb. 10, 1961 — just a few months into Kennedy administration — the image would later take on a more symbolic meaning as the Kennedy presidency waded into difficult waters. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the New York Times christened the photo, “The loneliest job in the world.” The photo was a favourite of President Clinton, who hang it in the Treaty Room, the presidential private office on the second floor of the White House. The West Wing recreated it for its opening segment (below). (more)

This photo is part of the George Tames Collection hosted by The New York Times Agency. George Tames was a photographer for The New York Times from 1945 to 1985.

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Artnet: Beautiful Girl Lying Down by Euan Uglow, 1958-1959, oil on canvas, 23,5” x 36,5”

Euan Uglow (10 March 1932 – 31 August 2000) was an English figurative painter. […] [He] is best known as a painter of the figure, particularly of female nudes, as well as portraits, still lifes and landscapes. His ostensibly simple compositions usually consist of a single figure in a setting emptied of extraneous detail; a typical still life may feature a single piece of fruit on a plain tabletop. With a meticulous method of painting directly from life, Uglow frequently took months or years to complete a painting. Planes are articulated very precisely, edges are sharply defined, and colours are differentiated with great subtlety. (wikipedia)

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About Denis Peterson:

“Denis Peterson was one of the first Photorealists to emerge in New York. He is widely acknowledged as the pioneer and primary architect of Hyperrealism which was founded upon the aesthetic principles of Photorealism. Author Graham Thompson wrote “One demonstration of the way photography became assimilated into the art world is the success of photorealist painting in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It is also called super-realism or hyper-realism and painters like Richard Estes, Denis Peterson, Audrey Flack, and Chuck Close often worked from photographic stills to create paintings that appeared to be photographs.” (wikipedia)

Visit his official website.

“The father, the mother and their three kids live at the outskirts of a city. There is a tall fence surrounding the house. The kids have never been outside that fence. They are being educated, entertained, bored and exercised in the manner that their parents deem appropriate, without any influence from the outside world. They believe that the airplanes flying over are toys and that zombies are small yellow flowers. The only person allowed to enter the house is Christina. She works as a security guard at the father’s business. The father arranges her visits to the house in order to appease the sexual urges of the son. The whole family is fond of her, especially the eldest daughter. One day Christina gives her as a present a headband that has stones that glow in the dark and asks for something in return.”

Michael Haneke meets The Royal Tannenbaum.

Artist’s statement:

“This photography project looked at childrens’ dream jobs, projecting the current employment problems onto one of the few timeless themes throughout childrens’ fantasies; Superheroes.”

Previously on Skandalon

Godzilla Haiku : no 7

“Loving Godzilla 17 syllables at a time.” By SamuraiFrog