Ever wondered what some of the most famous photographs in the history of photography would look like recreated in lego? Not bloody likely. But if that unlikely thought had ever bubbled up from the depths of your interior – and even if it hadn’t – you need imagine no more, as Professor Mike Stimpson, a.k.a. Flickr member Balakov, has made such an improbable notion reality. What follows is a tasty taster of Stimpson’s work juxtaposed with the original photographs. See if you can spot which is which. You can also check out the full Flickr gallery here. Enjoy!
Lunchtime Atop a Skyscraper (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam), Charles C. Ebbets, 1932.
Ebbets took the photo on September 29th, 1932, and it appeared in the New York Herald Tribune in its Sunday photo supplement on 2nd October. Taken on the 69th floor of the GE Building during the last several months of construction, the photo Men Asleep on a Girder shows the same workers napping on the beam.
V–J day in Times Square, Alfred Eisenstaedt, August 14, 1945. Originally published in Life magazine.
Because Eisenstaedt was photographing rapidly changing events during the V-J celebrations he didn’t get a chance to get names and details. The photograph does not clearly show the faces of either kisser and several people have laid claim to being the subjects. The photo was shot just south of 45th Street looking north from a location where Broadway and Seventh Avenue converge
Tank Man, or the Unknown Rebel, is the nickname of an anonymous man who became internationally famous when he was videotaped and photographed during the protests at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989. Several photographs were taken of the man, who stood in front of a column of Chinese Type 59 tanks, preventing their advance. This, one of the most widely reproduced versions of the photograph, was taken by Jeff Widener of the Associated Press from the sixth floor of the Beijing Hotel, about half a mile (800 meters) away from the scene, through a 400-millimeter lens.
General Nguyen Ngoc Loan Executing a Viet Cong Prisoner in Saigon, Eddie Adams, February 1, 1968.
The photograph shows South Vietnamese National Police Chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executing a Viet Cong officer in Saigon during the Tet Offensive. The event was also captured by NBC News film cameras, but Adams’ photograph remains the defining image.
The Hand of God goal was scored as the result of an illegal (but unpenalised) handball by Diego Maradona in the quarter-final match of the 1986 FIFA World Cup between England and Argentina, played on 22 June 1986 in Mexico City’s Estadio Azteca. Argentina won 2–1 and for some English people the legacy of this event perhaps best symbolizes the rivalry between the two teams and is usually mentioned whenever the two sides meet.
