Intimate Celebrity Shots From a World Before Instagram

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Is there anything better than a candid celebrity photo — the kind of picture that proves celebrities do, in fact, sit in chairs, smoke cigarettes, and, in the case of Twiggy, attempt to balance things on their upper lips?

Icons by Oscar: The Works of Photographer Oscar Abolafia, out July 18 from Lannoo Publishers, showcases an American photographer who caught 50 years of the world’s biggest stars off guard — including the Kennedys, the Presleys, and the Factory girls. This book is the first curated collection of his more than 300,000 photographs featuring stars’ intimate moments, made before reality TV and Instagram.

Click ahead to see Lucille Ball laughing, Andy Warhol administering a tattoo, and lots of famous people smoking.

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