The top 10 faces

It’s been just about six years since I started my 1000faces project. The first photo that I count was this one taken in Austin, TX back on March 5, 2008. I don’t know who she is but it was her 21st birthday.

I’ve now photographed almost 4,000 faces and for some reason they’ve been getting more attention lately. Since my Flickr account hit 2M views today I decided to share the 10 ten faces (based on views), so here they are:

I photographed this woman with red lipstick and a red headband on the street in Montreal.

This is a professor at MIT that I photographed in the basement of the old Media Lab.

This is one of my colleagues at InkHouse, outside our old office on Crescent Street in Waltham.

Here’s my wonderful wife Wendy.

Another colleague outside our Crescent Street office.

A couple of years ago I photographed MIT’s emTech conference and took this one.

This is Omar Tawakol of BlueKai, taken at Craft in New York.

This is another colleague out on the streets in New York very late one night.

This was taken late one night (or early one morning) in a bar in New York.

Also in a bar, in New York – but not so late.

While I like some of these pictures, they probably wouldn’t me on my top 10 list, but these are the faces that have had the most views. Can’t explain it, not sure what to make of it but it is what it is.

Daily Dozen – Back to School

August is a tough month. It certainly is as far as posting photos goes. Every year I see a big dip in my photographic productivity in August. Part of it is that I’m on vacation and even though I take pictures I don’t do a great job of processing and posting them. That trend continued in 2012. But summer is over and it’s time for everyone to buckle down and get serious again. That’s why today’s theme is back to school.

As a rule, I don’t photograph kids (I do, but I don’t post them any where) so it’s harder to say who’s a student. Thankfully, since I talk a bit with everyone whose picture I take, I know that all the faces in today’s set are students (or at least were when I took their photograph). Obviously none of them are on their way to middle school – over even high school. These students are mostly in grad school but it still counts!

Daily Dozen – Women Wearing Pearls

Don’t know what’s behind today’s set. I think it was just opening my photo stream and seeing a picture of a woman wearing pearls. I can’t vouch for all of the pearls in these photographs being real, but it’s the thought that counts.

Daily Dozen – Nice Choppers!

I just got my teeth cleaned and thought I’d do a set of people with great teeth. Here they are! Hope you’re teeth are doing great today.

Daily Dozen – Smirking Men

How do you define a smirk? I’m going with slightly crooked close-mouthed smiles. I had a bunch of them with varying degrees of crookedness. Hope you dig them.

Daily Dozen – Long and Dark May it Wave

This is the set I’d planned to do last Friday – women with long dark wavy hair. It’s hard to make a distinction between wavy and curly so I apologize if it’s a mixed bag but I try.

Daily Dozen – Goin’ to the Chapel

Every day there are between four and five thousand weddings in the United States. I’ve seen number saying more than six thousand in some places. Tomorrow my friend Abby is getting married. Originally today’s set was going to feature women with long wavy hair (which I’ll do on Monday I guess) but as I tagged photos I came across Abby’s photos a few times and thought, “oh yeah, she’s getting married tomorrow, I’ll do a set!” And so that’s what I did.

I met Abby almost exactly four years ago (July 30, 2008 – I know because I took her picture). Her then roommate Karyn (maybe they weren’t roommates at the time, probably not actually) became one of my truest pals so I’ve seen Abby here and there frequently over the past few years. Less, I guess since Karyn moved to Nebraska. Anyhow, like I was saying, lots of people get married and now it’s Abby’s turn. Fred’s the guy she’s marrying and he’s cool too. Here’s wishing them good fortune and a long and happy life together!

Daily Dozen – Women in Bars

This may be a first. Yesterday I did men in bars and said I’d do women’s today and here it is! The first photo is from Austin, TX. It was the first night I went out and photographed strangers. It hadn’t been my thing before that and if people hadn’t responded well to me asking I probably wouldn’t have continued. I’m glad people were – and continue to be – open minded.

Daily Dozen – Men in Bars

One of the easiest places to photograph strangers is in bars. There are a few reasons for this: first, people may have had a couple of drinks and are more relaxed; second, people are usually there with friends which makes them more comfortable and third, it’s usually a familiar place. When I started I shot almost exclusively in bars but eventually wanted to move beyond shooting in the dark. I still do it and always enjoy myself but am happy to have broadened things a bit. Today’s set features men in bars. Tomorrow, unless something else pops into my head, I will do women.

Daily Dozen – Women in Stripes

This was a surprisingly hard set to put together. It seems that many women don’t wear striped clothing. I looked hard though and was able to find a number to choose from. A few might be a stretch but what can you do?