Imposters [Hardcover]

James Knoblauch (Author), Shawna Kenney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2008

Imposters documents the out-of-work actors and vagrants who spend their days dressed up as characters like Superman, Spongebob Squarepants and Marilyn Monroe, filching a few bucks from out-of-town visitors to Los Angeles. Photographer James Knoblauch befriended these people and photographed them at home, in their costumes. Coupled with interviews conducted by Knoblauch and writer Shawna Kenney, Imposters explores the culture of celebrity’s humorous and revealing underbelly.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Mark Batty Publisher (February 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979048680
• ISBN-13: 978-0979048685
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 0.5 x 11.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,569,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Imposters, April 22, 2008

By 

Maggie "Favorite Aunt Maggie" (Rock Hill, SC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imposters (Hardcover)

This book is a fascinating look at the people behind the masks. Shawna Kenney's words take us beyond the mask and give us a unique insight into the people behind the mask. James Knoblauch's idea to take the photos away from Hollywood Blvd. was inspired and give us a new view of the people behind the masks.

I have been to Hollywood on vacation a few times so I am one of those people who always enjoyed seeing the "Imposters". I never really thought of them as scary but I never had my picture taken with them either. I preferred to enjoy them from afar.

The thing is I never really gave them any thought after I left Hollywood Blvd.

Thank you both for a book well done. I will try to give more thought to all those people behind masks now, like the person handing me my fries at Burger King or the boy packing my groceries at the store. We all come out from behind the mask when we get home, don't we?

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sad, pathetic, beautiful in a tawdry way, and very human, April 15, 2008

By 

Dennis Littrell (SoCal) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Imposters (Hardcover)

Photographer James Knoblauch writes: "When I first saw the Imposters, I loved how they fit the Hollywood landscape. Their costumes were faded [I might say, "as faded as their dreams"] and they blended in with the blue sky, white concrete and dirty air." He adds, "These characters work on Hollywood Boulevard, posing for pictures with tourists in the hope of receiving a tip. For the most part, the Imposters are actors who prefer the idea of working the street over working in a restaurant."

Call it Hollywood Americana, call it panhandling in a Mickey Mouse costume, call it pathetic, or maybe call it love. Knoblauch decided to take his camera deeper into the lives of these denizens outside the studio door--outside, but still living, The Dream.

There's Gil Gex who plays Jimi Hendrix in a costume his girl friend made in 1985. Knoblauch photographed him in his apartment with his guitar, headband, yellow shirt, black pants, plastic green watch band, sitting on his bed with a small silver TV on a chair next to it.

There's also Michael A. Luce who impersonates Johnny Depp's Jack Sparrow from the "Pirates" movies, who says the best part of the job is "getting a kiss on the lips." He claims he gets lots of dates "and some have gone 100%." The belt for his costume "is the bed sheet from the motel where I live."

Christopher Lloyd Dennis is caught in front of a wall of his Superman memorabilia sporting his Superman costume, the tights, the cape, the augmented biceps, holding a green rock. He says his "Hardest earned tip" was "$30 for lifting a 300-pound woman at the request of her husband."

Batman (Max Allen) seems upscale almost in his plant festooned pad among some wicker furniture. He says, "I've had 4 or 5 fights. Sometimes guys get drunk and want the reputation of beating up Batman. But I'm a martial artist." While in costume he claims to have caught "2 purse-snatchers, 1 shoplifter, and 1 assailant."

Who says the Hollywood dream is out of reach?

The photos of the Imposters are full page glossies and there are 35 of them, including a not exactly fetching "Marilyn Monroe" (Melissa Weiss), a very ugly Homer Simpson (Uchenda) in white briefs over yellow leggings, a formidable Mae West (Shelley Johnson), and on and on. Each photo reveals through the pointed eye and selective brain of the photographer something about the Imposter, caught, as it were, in his or her own lair. The dirty rugs, the smashed lamp shade, the peeling paint, the cheap little electric fan on the opened window seal. Knobaugh shows us more than their dreams: he rubs our noses in the very stuff of their lives.

There's text by writer Shawna Kenney and her interview with David Markey who has made a movie about the Imposters entitled "Reinactors: What's So Famous about Being a Star?"

Buzz Poole, managing editor at Mark Batty Publishers provides a short introduction.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A unique contribution to academic and community library Popular Culture reference collections, May 8, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Imposters (Hardcover)

An integral part of every science fiction and fantasy convention are the costumes that the fans create imitating their favorite characters from literature, pop culture, films, and television shows. Funny, thoughtful, irreverent, and occasionally iconoclastic, "Imposters" is a compilation of full-color photographs of some truly memorable examples of fan costuming presented with a one page bio of the man or woman who has (and rather successfully) sought to emulate a particular character with precise attention to detail. From Superman; Wonder Woman; and Spiderman; to Elvis; Bugs Bunny; and Homer Simpson, "Imposters" offers a roster of examples that might well serve as a template for other enthusiasts as to what they might do. "Imposters" is a unique contribution to academic and community library Popular Culture reference collections, and a whole lot of fun for non-specialist general browsers who have ever dressed up for Halloween, SciFi, or costume party events!