Way To Be Happy No. 17: Learn something

This picture was taken in 1924 by the Russian photographer and artist Aleksander Rodchenko. Not only does it look amazingly contemporary, but the subject, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky, was a pretty contemporary figure, too, a sort of Henry Rollins of the early USSR.

"The poet, two years younger than Rodchenko, had been a celebrity since 1913. He saw himself as the "drummer" of the Russian Revolution and wrote a vernacular poetry meant for declamation. Most at home in the heroic era up to 1924, he cultivated the menacing look of a gangster." -- Ian Jeffrey, How to Read a Photograph

The directness of the pose, the severity of his expression, and the masculine physicality against that rather natty suit point directly to today's fashion photography. It's a long way from what most of us think of as a "1920s" look.