Or maybe "funny" isn't the right word. Whatever you call them, there's definitely something off center about these fashion photos from the 30s through the 50s. What do you think of the crutch photo above?
Girls running through surreal landscapes in their slips (above) were a staple of 30s fashion magazines.
Cocteau (above) was a favorite subject of photographers and fully half the pictures of the man show him sitting on his own drawings. I'm ashamed to admit that no photographer's ever asked me to sit on my drawings, a sure sign that I'm small potatoes in the art world.
Famous portrait photographer Cecil Beaton was accused by his enemies of being bourgeois because he so frequently posed his models in ornate trappings (above). "Bourgeois" is a meaningless insult in classless America, but it's a crushing invective in Europe.
Was Beaton gay, you ask? I don't know. Perhaps there's a clue in the design of his real-life apartment, shown above.
Horst was Beaton's competition. No skulls for Horst. His models showed their class and their sense of the futuristic by always hugging the side of the frame.
Horst was terrific at still-lifes (above). Here's a flower, a cup, and a strainer, all menaced by a threatening toothpaste tube.