Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Errol Morris (The Thin Blue Line, The Fog of War, Standard Operating Procedure) recently wrote a short piece entitled “Double Exposure” about the history of mug shots over at Newsweek.com
The 19th century images are taken from the book, “Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots,” and Morris’ commentary reflects his fascination with the power of photography and perception.
As he says in the article regarding the series of mirrored mugs, “Our profile is like our shadow, something that follows us everywhere. Caught in their own moment of judgement, the subjects appear to be both participant and observer.” Interesting indeed. Check it out here.
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This was a really interesting article. The mirrors made all of the subjects creepier, but in a way, also beautiful.
#2 is a mish mash of Billy Crudup and James Cavizel, hehe. People don’t look like these ol’ birds anymore.
Chris–I love this kind of thing. Check out this website which is a collection of death masks; plaster and wax moulds of the faces of dead famous people, going back hundreds of years. Wanna know EXACTLY what Voltaire looked like, down to the dimples?
http://library.princeton.edu/libraries/firestone/rbsc/aids/C0770/
By the way, dovetailing with what Paul said:
#6 is a mashup of James Franco and David Duchovny. Fo real.
This is SO cool. I trained in portrait photography for some years and I absolutely LOVE this kind of thing. Thanks for sharing.