Artistic References

In Life is Strange, Max Caulfield's artistic background and interest in photography means the game is full of references to artists, authors, musicians, photographers and film makers. This article focuses on artistic references that can be found throughout the game.

Max

• Ray Bradbury - Max has a copy of Battle Royale, and borrows Kate Marsh's edition of The October Country.
• Leonardo da Vinci - Max admires him, simply stating "Da Vinci was a boss".
• Henri Cartier-Bresson - His book, The Decisive Moment, is in Jefferson's classroom.
  • Max has one of his books in her dorm room. She comments on him being one of "the greatest."
• Annie Leibovitz - Max says she has "mad respect" for her while examining the textbooks in class.
• W. Eugene Smith - Max says he is amazing.
• Richard Avedon - Max says "it's good to see him among the masters."
  • If Max comforts Victoria Chase in Episode 1, she will say that Victoria's art style is "Richard Avedon-esque".
• Salvador Dalí - He is mentioned as Max is looking through the textbooks and again in her room. She says he "could truly freeze time."
• Robert Capa - His photograph The Falling Soldier is mentioned when asking Evan Harris about his portfolio.
• Robert Doisneau - When Evan challenges Max to state the correct photographer for The Falling Soldier image, Max can incorrectly state Doisneau as the photographer.
  • Max has one of his books in her dorm room. She comments on him being one of "the greatest."
• Edgar Allan Poe - Max speculates on her bed about her vision, "A dream within a dream."
• Man Ray - He is featured on a poster in Max's room. She wonders if he would call them "selfie portraits."
• Philip-Lorca diCorcia - Max calls him "my man."
• Julia Margaret Cameron - Max loves her Victorian vibe.
• Thomas Wolfe - "You can't go home again." But Max did.
• Joseph Pulitzer - "Another Pulitzer for the portfolio."
• H.R Giger - Max mentions that Kate is in her Giger period when looking at her sad drawings in Episode 2.
• William Blake - If Kate survived in Episode 2, Max writes the first stanza of The Tyger from Songs of Innocence and Experience on her room slate: "Tyger Tyger, burning bright / In the forests of the night; / What immortal hand or eye, / Could frame thy fearful symmetry?"
• Jack Kerouac - If Kate died in Episode 2, Max writes a quote from Jack Kerouac's The Dharma Bums on her room slate in memory of Kate: "Are we fallen angels who didn't want to believe that nothing is nothing..."
  • Max keeps a photograph of Kerouac inside the door of her school locker, which she can look at and say: "Hello Jack, kiss kiss...".
  • Max talks to Chloe about Kerouac while they are hanging out on the train tracks in Episode 2: "Kerouac knew. It's the romance of travel and movement... The sound of the train whistle at night..."
  • Max thinks about Kerouac when she is in the Zeitgeist Gallery in Episode 5: "I love that Jack Kerouac and the Beats hung out in this same hood. Dig it, cat."
• Andy Warhol - Max has his photo inside the door of her school locker and calls herself "Max Warhol" while at the Zeitgeist Gallery. There is also a Warhol stamp on the 28th page of Max's diary.
• David Hamilton - Max has one of his books in her dorm room. She comments on him being one of "the greatest."

Jefferson

• Alfred Hitchcock - Jefferson makes reference to Hitchcock's saying about film and photography being "little pieces of time." However, he is mistaken since the saying is usually attributed to James Stewart (even though the two men collaborated on four movies)
• Allen Ginsberg - Jefferson mentions the iconic photo of Jack Kerouac on the balcony.
• Salvador Dali - Jefferson comments that Dali is a "true renaissance man, like Cocteau".
• Jean Cocteau - (See quote on Dali above.)
• Robert Cornelius - Jefferson informs his class that Cornelius was the man who created the first American Daguerreotype self-portrait.
• John Lennon - Jefferson quotes Lennon while encouraging Max to submit her photo entry for the Everyday Heroes Photo Contest: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans."

Victoria

• Diane Arbus - Victoria feels haunted by her images of sad mothers and children. Jefferson critiques her work, saying that anyone could capture a moment of desperation and that Arbus could have taken another approach with her "brilliant eye," such as capturing people at the height of their beauty or innocence.
• Robert Frank - Victoria prefers his work to that of Arbus. Jefferson agrees and believes he captured the essence of post-war, beat America.
• Louis Daguerre - Victoria gives an answer to Jefferson's question that Daguerre was a French painter who created "Daguerreotypes" - a process she explains gave portraits "a sharp reflective style, like a mirror."