No fug mugs
by Paolo Lorenzana for Philippine Star Supreme Section Feb 08 http://supreme.ph/2008/02/02/wanted-head-spacers/
Those self-taken shots of you shirtless and smirking at a cell phone camera, snaps of you smugly raising a bottle of Tanduay, even that one pic at the beach where your girlfriend/boyfriend/golden retriever is coating you with saliva shouldn’t have a place above or beside your full name for everyone from your prospective boss to potential partners (both professional and playtime) to see. All the random, crass, senseless pictures you alternate as “head shots” belong in digital photo albums, just so they can be viewed optionally and certainly not imposed on the general, web-surfing public.
Online headshots today should be given as much importance as the 2×2 on your passport, except that, hallelujah, you sure as hell have a better chance of looking more like a shiny, happy human being rather than one who suffered a hangover the night before and was dragged to the nearest Foto-Me. People used to take their portraits seriously (they represented you, man) and this conscientiousness to put our best faces forward in the virtual CVs that are our social networking profiles — the big four being Multiply, MySpace, Facebook, Friendster — is why Supreme’s photographer-to-watch-out-for Niccolo Cosme held a Headshot Clinic last Dec. 20, gathering 62 people from all walks of life to save face and take a bold step forward to thwart all the bad angles and strained smiles in cyberspace. And when all photos were uploaded from Jan. 27-28 (check them out at www.niccolocosme.com), most anyone who witnessed the mug masterpieces had a trip to the headshot doctor in their mind, the response to the project so good that a Melbourne chapter of the Headshot Clinic is underway. With a little glazing of the skin here and some pupil coloring there, our very own David Milan didn’t call the whole thing “Cosme-tology” for nothing, but you’d want some special treatment to your mug, too, if you realized how everyone’s is now just one Google search away.
