Revisionist Cigarettes

After the Huck Finn censorship debacle, Iconic Photos culled some visual counterparts:

But I believe when we see a picture of someone famous Churchill, Pollock or Freud we admire them for their abilities and genius, not for their smoking. Whether a cigarette, cigar or any other fumigant is present or not, we see beyond them to witness in those photos men of talent; our focus is not on the cigarette, unless specific attention is called for by its inexplicable absence. Cigarette censorship opens a debate where such a debate was not necessary, where such a debate could only detract from the images and where such a debate would never have existed without the censorship itself.

(Hat tip: Mark Frauenfelder)