in Art, People

Reflection of Life With LEGO bricks [32 PICS]

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Photographed by Malcolm Browne in 1963, during the protest against persecution of Buddhists in South Vietnam. Self immolation of a monk.

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Photo of Miley Cyrus when she was 15 years old. Photographer Annie Leibovitz apologises for taking topless photos of 15 years old star Miley Cyrus.

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Photo of a model Nastassja Kinski, photographed by Richard Avedon in 1982

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Photographed by Eugene Smith in 1946, photo of his children entering a forest.

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The famous Afghan girl, in 1985 National Geographic cover photograph of Sharbat Gula.

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Tank Man stood against the tanks on June 5, 1989, on Tiananmen Square, when Chinese military suppressed the protests. He is also known as “Unknown Rebel”

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This photograph is taken in 1945 by Joe Rosenthal.
“Raising the flag on Iwo Jima”

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Tennis Girl

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Landing on the surface of the moon in 1969, photograph by Neil Armstrong

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This photograph is taken during the England-France rugby match in 1974.

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Photograph taken in 1954 by Norman Potter at Oxford, England

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During the quarter finals of World Cup in 1986, match between England and Argentina.

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Omaha Beach, during the World War II.

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Construction workers having their lunch atop a skyscraper

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Behind the Gare St. Lazare, 1932
Henri Cartier-Bresson’s the most iconic photo, thaken outside the Saint-Lazar train station in Paris.

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In Spanish civil war “Death of a Loyalist Soldier” photo taken in 1936.

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Madrid, 1933

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Photographed by Henri Cartier Bresson in 1938, “By the Marne River”

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Very famous Vietnam war photograph by Eddie Adams, in 1968.

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This photograph is taken by Marc Riboud in 1967 during the anti Vietnam protests in Wshington.

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A legendary kiss in Times Square, the photo is taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt in 1945

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188 Comments

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  9. Beautiful. Although I must say, the smiles on the Lego people’s faces makes it slightly disturbing, especially the one with the Viet Cong person being executed.

  11. The Lego model of the man in Vietnam about to be executed really stood out at me…I think that these are all really neat, and kind of disturbing at the same time. You really have to be talented to make people feel that way about kids’ toy blocks.

  14. Yeah I have to agree that the smiling faces makes it creepy, but it’s still pretty cool. Also that last pic where the sailor is kissing the nurse, the nurse didn’t know the sailor and promptly slapped him afterwards.

  19. Very cool. I’d like more information on each of these pictures, if the author or someone can provide it.

  23. amazing…..but i must confess, the one of Tiananmen Square reminded me of “Superbad”….

  40. I don’t like this at all, actually. Some of them are cute, but most of these are epic photographs that lose all emotion when you use legos (and border on the line of bad taste). The tanks at Tiananmen square recreation especially lost all power that photograph carries.

  46. another stumbler.. wont be back and doubt michael will be either, but a reply to that user.. i find a lot of the iconic pictures lost a lot of their power *because* they were iconic, seeing them made out of lego made me think more about the original, seemed to bring the original back to life, reminded me of the different bits of the picture… in short, brilliant

  47. Nice idea, though it comes off rather kitschy. If only the iconic image of the Vietnamese man about to be shot wasn’t reduced to a lackluster photo of smiling plastic. In such poor taste, really.

  48. This is really neat! If you go to my website and click the link to my Trevor’s website, you can see some pretty neat stuff he has done with legos.

  49. Some of these are in very bad taste. The one of the Vietnamese seconds before his execution is just horrifying with the smiling Lego.

  50. All the legos are smiling. Not all the subjects in the pictures are. Especially not the one that is about to get shot in the head. Cool Idea. And wow, the patience!

  56. This is great. It’s funny how out of place the smiles (made to entertain children) are in the reality of adult life. If only this world could be filled with childhood innocence.

  57. “Stumbled Upon” here … agree with most others about the smiling. Also don’t think the legos did the images justice in the emotion they are supposed to evoke. However, I couldn’t replicate an image that well with legos, so kudos to the artist.

  58. I have to say that I initially agreed with a few of the posters, who felt that the smiling LEGO characters were not appropriate for some of the scenes. But not only is that the nature of all LEGO faces, but it does provide a startling juxtaposition to the original, which works, like random.user said, “to bring the original back to life.” Alone, the LEGO-based photos would be weak, and some even in poor taste, but as part of a pair, these definitely work. Nicely done.

  60. There is nothing here that remotely resembles art. These are Lego’s that crudely resemble famous pieces.

    You can paint a chalk drawing of the Mona Lisa and it’s exactly that when you are done. A chalk copy of the Mona Lisa. The real Mona Lisa is the piece of art. The chalk drawing would be a crude copy made from a different medium, like Lego’s.

    You can make copies with wire ties, Coffee stirring straws or you can bust out a crayon and draw a replica.

    Herr Weave, I do not mean any disrespect, ‘juxtaposition’ best describes to random objects that together in parallel make a impact. Like a butterfly on a sand dune or baby tiger nursing from a pig. Lego’s positioned purposely to resemble famous art is just staged junk.

  69. Lovely 🙂

    It’s a bit creepy how they’re all smiling isn’t it?
    Take the vietnamese one for example…

  70. This reminds me of a website that tells stories from the bible using Legos. This is a neat site!

  71. i like most of these, people are so much happier in lego.. i just wish the vietnamese prisoner image hadn’t been recreated, makes the whole thing very dark =\

  73. I studied some of these photographs in a class I did.
    War photography and the scenes depicted moments before death were in themselves controversial. But ultimately, they are considered records of history more than art.

    But apart from which I think it’s awful to replicate these particular photographs with LEGO.

    Sure, the ones that don’t involve these topics are fun and quirky and I like them.

    To put it in perspective, if there was an iconic photograph of a relative of mine at the moment prior to their execution, I think I’d be very offended by a representation in LEGO.

    I don’t see the point of it. I don’t get the connection between a kid’s plaything, a camera and a person’s life. As it is, it’s upsetting to see these original photographs but they have a real point.

  75. To start, I’d like to say well done. These are very clever and you have done a brilliant job at attaining several different things.

    Firstly you cleverly combined the silly with the serious, Anna Kournikova in the tennis shot was absolutely brilliant, had me laughing for ages. In doing this you managed to make this site more than a means to make a political statement. It is truly a reflection of your skill and art, something most ‘artist’ don’t achieve owing to the need to rub some satire/political manure in our faces.

    Secondly I congratulate you for taking on some of those more, dangerous pictures, the ones that will have people apoplectic with rage at you for doing so. Conveyed in your presentations is the idiocy of each situation; all those tanks to kill one man, the lack of reason behind publicly executing someone just for the camera etc.

    I don’t for a minute think these pictures take away the seriousness of the situation, merely enhance how seriously worrying it is that they came about in the first place.

    Lastly, using a children’s toy… wow. Very clever.

    Everyone remembers playing with this particular toy, at that wonderful age when we were innocent to public executions, ignorant to the cruelty of the world and quite happy to build square houses with our granddads.

    Perhaps I could make a suggestion to those that looked at these images and found themselves instantly offended; revaluate your understanding before mouthing off in a high and mighty manner.

    The artist engaged his brain before his camera; perhaps you could do so before engaging your mouth?

  80. stumbled here……. i love how all th faces are smiling even in the bad situations makes me laff

  88. the one who posted, “please spell it LEGO” must be a Capricorn!

    what i personally find “tasteless” are the rather sterile approaches to and lack of respect (or at least tolerance) for: art!

    looking at the running comparisons of photos was more enlightening for me than many intellectual discussions about reality! including my own! excellent photography! don’t cha just love stumble?!

  93. i thought i would congratulate u for having a sense of humour these are gr8 man more plz 🙂

  94. The sexist crap tennis one looks completely and utterly out of place with the rest of the historical/political/powerful images.

    The smiling faces do add to the images… like a commentary on how plastic and artificial our news has become in this age of soundbites and quick images to convey mere moments.

  96. “The sexist crap tennis one looks completely and utterly out of place with the rest of the historical/political/powerful images.

    The smiling faces do add to the images… like a commentary on how plastic and artificial our news has become in this age of soundbites and quick images to convey mere moments.”

    Their having fun making lego recreations out of black and white photos, nothing artsy needs to be interpreted out of it, and to say that tennis photo is sexist is infact sexist of you.
    So go back art college or wherever the hell you came from, i doubt ANY artist created their work with a “view” in mind. Apart from some modern artists who do things like draw pictures like a 6 year old, knowing exactly what people are going to interpret it as, and are just trying to earn money by doing as little effort as possible.

  99. I was biting my tongue reading some of these posts… These photos are in my humble opinion quite sublime. I think those who think that some of the recreations are in bad taste ought to step back and take a look at the world we’re all living in… Do you think the horrors being perpetuated in our name are bad taste? Are you more shocked by these LEGO chaps with smiles than real life?

  100. Some of those pics had been categorized as BEST on the history of the photograpy issue

    really nice

  105. wow all of these ppl stumbled here. stumple upon has started a flow of discovery and recognition of websites such as this. hooray stumble!
    these are beautiful, aloot more things that could be done with these, good creativity

  109. “Their having fun making lego recreations out of black and white photos, nothing artsy needs to be interpreted out of it, and to say that tennis photo is sexist is infact sexist of you.
    So go back art college or wherever the hell you came from, i doubt ANY artist created their work with a “view” in mind. Apart from some modern artists who do things like draw pictures like a 6 year old, knowing exactly what people are going to interpret it as, and are just trying to earn money by doing as little effort as possible.”

    At least I learned to spell and use proper grammar when I got my degree. What’s your excuse?

    The point I was making was that a girl without underwear scratching her ass on a tennis court seems out of place amongst the more timely and timeless images.

    Get your head out of your ass and learn to proofread your comments before you post.

  111. the one of the tennis playing girl showing her bum was a comedy poster back in the 80s.

  112. Where is the one of the burning monk? I’ve seen it on other sites about these images, but not here…

  115. I Stumbled too! for those of you who don’t know what the people are talking about when they say “I stumbled”, they are talking about something called StumbleUpon. Learn about it at StumbleUpon.com. It;s the coolest thing i’ve ever “stumbled upon”

  116. There must be a certain irony in the fact that *everyone* stumbled here, including myself.

    Interesting series of photo’s though. And to whoever said it was “insulting to use legos” for the recreations needs to get over it. Remove stick, than continue on with life.

  117. I too stumbled here, have to agree totally with alicia, (thanks for saving me the typing – ‘you took the words right out of my mouth’)

    To the artist, just brilliant, one thing that hasn’t been commented on as far as i can read, if your talent as a photographer.

    The angles, the lighting, the proximity all add to the impact.

    I have to say that i had tired of every historic photo you’ve chosen, desensitised so to speak, yet your photos have had me revisiting my thoughts on those moments and their impact.

    So with me you’ve attained two objectives, you have amused and you have provoked reflection.

    Thank you.

  131. What an interesting Stumble!

    In some of the depictions, it’s a little weird seeing the smiles on some of the Legos’ faces when the photo was clearly not a happy moment.

    Creative!

  136. stumbled here. with all due respect- i mean these are really magnificent pieces of art, but it looks like some would be easy to recreate. but still, i would never have thought to recreate pictures in such a way…

  141. Sorry, but I think this attempt to use LEGO to depict these pictures which carry real honest human emotion in often very difficut situations to be silly and just a waste of everyone’s time. Maybe a lot of people here are too young to appreciate them…people who grew up blowing up things on computer games. It’s a sign of the cheapening of life in America, I suppose.

  147. Political statements with Lego’s. Some are kind of cool, some are kind of sad. Some are just interesting. Thanks for posting. I agree with previous commenter. The grins don’t always fit the scene.

  152. Stumbled here too 🙂
    i love this site, first of all because I come from Denmark (somewhere in Scandinavia, whitch is a part of europe:) ) and LEGO is a DANISH idea, did you know that?
    every danish boy grow up with LEGO (“LEg-GOdt” whitch means Pay well ;))

  153. haha…the Bresson is brilliant! I’d love to see Seurat’s Un dimanche après-midi à l’Île de la Grande Jatte legoized.

  155. Another stumbler, who wants to say “Thank You” for brightening an otherwise painful day. I am also reassured that the majority of responders can still enjoy something humorous, without sharing their petty little issues with the rest of us!

  157. what is wrong with you people. his is -censored- sick. they reproduce serious things with -censored- smiling lego toys. that’s retarded not to mention that it lack any imagination. -censored- lego pricks.

  159. Holy sh*te!! That’s convinced me. Frickin’ lemmings. I’m uninstalling StumbleUpon right now. Cool pix though.

  162. Stumbled here.

    My fave is the one where the lego guy has a gun pointed to his face and he’s smiling. I thought it was funny! But that’s pretty awesome!

  170. Hey, I stumbled here too. I like them; how most of them are shot in the same colour and general style as the actual photos – great imagery, though.

    It makes me feel like I’m looking at life through more playful visionry. Kudos.

  172. I Like ‘Tank-man’ i was hoping there would be more histoicle pictures, but who cares ^^
    its brilant

  180. You people are way too serious and critical. Good idea, good execution. Who cares if the artist used Photoshop in a few. That’s what the program was designed for.

  182. The depth of field is really bad on these. In the originals, you can see what’s in the background. In the Lego version, it’s all blurry, making it harder to compare to what it should be.

  183. Nice idea. However, the smiling faces are disturbing and dramatically change the mood, sometimes it makes the pictures unrecognizable.

  185. I realize these are all famous photos but a few are not familiar to me. Is the info behind the photo available anywhere?

  186. Good blog! I actually love how it’s easy on my eyes and also the info are well written. I am wondering how I can be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which need to do the trick! Have a nice day!

  188. The permanent Lego smile takes away a lot of punch from the picture of the vietnamese execution. The others are very well done!

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