If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the news over the past year or three, you’ve seen his face hundreds of times. You know who he is and what he stands for. You’d probably know who you were listening to if you heard his voice on the radio.
But can you name him, based on this close-up full-frontal portrait?
(Answer and story here)
L
Yep.
It’s an unusual angle for him though.
No, because I’m sure my first guess will be wrong and that this is a meanie-poo trick question, Lew.
What she said! :)
It’s John Key, fed through a facial aging software program.
It’s Roger Douglas.
I can’t believe no one’s called it yet…
Bela Lugosi. Or another of them there undead.
Lew writes,
Which vaguely reminds me, I feel all at sea with the new National cabinet. Surprisingly often I can’t identify Ministers by their voices on the radio and have to pay attention to figure out who they are. It almost makes me miss the Labour cabinet :)
Heh. He does look a bit like a vampire, or Charlton Heston in a dark alley. The answer is linked above.
Not a trick question – unlike the rorschach propaganda posts (of which I’ve another coming soon), this one is intended to examine the work of the photographer, not of the audience. I didn’t recognise him, nor did any of the three people I showed it to without a spoiler – so if you did, you’re more perceptive than I.
That public image of a nice, non-threatening, moderate and conciliatory reluctant leader, a family guy, a hero and humble patriot, crafted over decades – ruined (for me, at least) in 1/250th of a second by an astute photographer with a political agenda. Masterful.
(Well, OK, I never really believed the public image. But I believed bits of it, and that belief was reinforced by the usual genial, smiling, slightly doddery portrayal of this bloke.)
L
Hmmm. I clicked on the answer. To me it so obviously looked like him, I thought it must be a trick question.
I’m with Carol. You (and they) really didn’t pick it?
She went a bit further and ‘shopped it a bit:
http://www.hollywood-newsroom.com/wtf/john-mccain-vampire-photo-by-jill-greenberg/
Carol, Graeme and others,
No, I really didn’t. Perhaps I should try to mitigate my credulity by saying I had no hints or context or anything.
In this photo he looks like a capable, wise-headed and ruthless old patrician, shrewd and confident and decisive. The campaign caricatures were another thing altogether.
jack, now, that’s a bit too far.
L