Authenticity
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Your Headshot is an Opportunity
Your headshot is a gift—if you use it that way. Like every part of your brand, your headshot can work for you or it can take up space. But unlike logos and color palettes, it’s personal. It makes an emotional connection—the most important part of business no one talks about. A killer headshot is like…
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The Case for Radical Authenticity
You are you. Seems simple enough. You laugh your way, stare off meaningfully your way, remember your grandma your way. Professional photos should be easy. Just be, like, completely vulnerable, and charming, no matter what happens. Sure. Even if you can (lucky you!), there’s a problem: Obviously, we look like ourselves when we’re being ourselves.…
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AI Can Never Be You
Even when AI no longer hallucinates, headshot generators will still have a fatal problem. They can never make an expression that’s uniquely yours. It can make something that LOOKS LIKE you. But you’re not there. So if you’re good with misrepresenting yourself… sure, use a generator. The person in the picture will never be you.…
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Why I Opened A Headshot & Portrait Studio in 2025
I have a habit of bulldozing introductions. Let’s fix that. Hiii, I’m Adam. I designed and art directed at startups, small farms, mid-size firms, and big corporate for 20 years. I ran a poetry press for 10, and a filthy-mouthed guide to Albuquerque for seven. There was a lot of overlap. Everywhere I went, I…
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Complicating Gendered Lighting
We don’t think of light as gendered, but boy (see what I did there), do we gender it. Women should have every crease filled. (We call it “beauty light.”) Men are allowed rough texture and deep shadows (where our feelings live). There are obvious exceptions… but they’re exceptions. Every photographer I learned from set it…
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I’m So Tired of Manufactured Authenticity
Why do we keep trying to manufacture authenticity? Right now everything’s BTS: “authenticity” that has to keep proving its bona fides. When someone named the “Gen Z shake” I’d seen in so many vertical videos, all I could think was “Hurray… more performative bullshit.” Stripping away production value doesn’t make you more real, any more…
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Who’s the expert again?
It’s telling that the headshot generators compete on accuracy. They’re racing to engineer what a camera does naturally. AI averages everything it’s seen, matches patterns, and spits out of an image of you. Mostly. Because it doesn’t actually KNOW anything, it doesn’t know if you’re you. Sometimes it just goes rogue, for reasons not even…
