Lookalikes.

After yesterday's day off, came in to find these two books on my desk:

 

Comments

[dangermom]

That's a really weird photo. Where's the rest of the guy? How did two different people decide that this was a great cover photo?

[teacherninja]

Or Joyce Carol Oates' publisher is lazy. Check out these:
http://www.amazon.com/Assignation-Joyce-Carol-Oates/dp/0880014407/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250879882&sr=8-18

http://www.amazon.com/White-Oleander/dp/B000UV73MC/ref=sr_1_33?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250880044&sr=8-33

[Anarchivist]

In case anyone's interested, it's a photo called "The Hug," from Nan Goldin's book "The Ballad of Sexual Dependency."

[Leila]

Nice. Thanks, Anarchivist!

[annie]

Eesh, I actually don't even like this picture; not sure why they'd both want it. (The White Oleander picture, like techerninja mentioned, is another story.)

[Mandy]

It looks like his head is squished into her chest.

[Brooke]

My theory is that this girl is really just hugging herself, and one of her arms is disturbingly musclebound. That, or she's just been embraced by the fearsome Disembodied Biceps of Doom.

[Celia]

Weird!

I have an award for you here.

[Gina]

I thought she was demonstrating how the Boyfriend Pillow works.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6141895/

[Chrissy]

I don't know how the art selection works for book covers - feel free to chime in if you do - but it seems odd to me that a publisher would use a known art piece (that I would think they would obviously have to pay the artist for) rather than stock images. That this piece is used on multiple book covers seems even odder to me.
To me, Nan Goldin's work is pretty charged with its own meaning and to see it kind of randomly slapped on different books is a bit weird to me.
It's late, I'm tired, but this is one of the more bizarre book cover lookalikes I've seen.

[LG]

I feel embarrassed for the poor authors. It's the bookish version of going to a party in a new dress, only to discover that someone else decided to wear the same one.

[Rebecca Artessa]

Book covers are designed by the publisher with input from the author. Graphic Designers and illustrators put the covers together. There should be a credit listed in the book to the cover designer. Check out the books for the information. They should be done either by the same publishing house or the same designer. If it is the same publisher it is weird, if it is the same designer he/she is really being lazy. If no one is listed then someone is literally stealing. This is big in the industry.

[Nancy Cohen]

The cover for my 1994 book, Circle of Light, written as Nancy Cane for Kensington, is repeated in Janeen O'Kerry's book titled Sister of the Moon in 2001.