I normally respond for inquiries about images for marketing or video appearances with “I have a face that is tailor-made for radio”.
This is because, for my entire life, I have suffered from generalized social anxiety. This is, I now understand, due to a combination of being born slightly neuro-divergent, and suffering childhood trauma (see my autobiography for the details).
As a result, when anybody points a camera at me, I immediately “freeze”, and my facial expression makes me look like a criminal fugitive or a wild animal caught in car headlights. Then, in order to mitigate my nervousness, I start talking. This makes for hit-or-miss images, because as I talk my blink frequency also increases.
Eventually, if I forget that the camera is there, my facial expression relaxes to my normal face. The wedding photographer for my first marriage realized this, and waited me out until my face relaxed, so those images were actually pretty good, but they are lost in the mists of time.
Mrs. Ramsgate usually gets me to laugh by yelling “boobs!” at me, which definitely causes me to smile broadly. However, I actually smile with my whole face, not my mouth, and I express emotions with my whole face. So while those images meet the test “does he look happy”, they do not necessarily provide any insight into my inner person.
4 years ago, before Covid, I was on the road in KY on a client assignment, and stuck in a hotel in Frankfort one evening. I decided to try and see if I could get some decent images of myself in the mirror at my work desk in the room. I spent the best part of 20 minutes on this task, and I had to wait myself out until my face assumed a relaxed and more normal position (as I know it does). The lighting was low, but actually quite good for portraits.
What I ended up with was this image, which I think is the closest representation of my inner personality – a mixture of thoughtfulness, with the hint of a wry smile.
Unfortunately it is probably not suitable for marketing purposes. So I may have to continue with my assumed public identity of a Norwegian Forest Cat. For now.
