History of Headshots and Headshot Photography

Being a photographer for more than 20 yrs has afforded me the pleasure and privilege to work with many outstanding people of all ages and professions.  The next leaders, today’s leaders and leaders of the past and some not publicly known but equally outstanding.

The terminology, headshot was adopted by the movie industry through a popular movie director that often complained about his actors portraits.  “Mug shot, Mug Shot, why do they send me mug shots – I want professional portraits:.  Inversely the casting agents modified the term mug shot to headshot when speaking to their clients.  Eventually it became a definition for portraits used casting exclusive to the movie industry and printed in 8X10 attached to the resume.  In those days actor’s and dignitaries were the only people purchasing professional portraits of themselves.

Real Estate industry were the early adopters of head shot photography for branding an agent.  They realized that attaching a portrait to their marketing material improved the (ROI) return on investment for marketing material.  Now, all we need to do is step outside and in less than a few blocks, realtor headshots are plastered all over the place.

Being one of the few, and the only Vancouver based photographer specializing in corporate headshots, I have witnessed a great deal of change once clients have professional portraits of their staff.  Sales staff can build relationship and be professional through their headshot.

Why is this a novel idea?  Most agencies boast about their staff being the greatest asset and will force the office manager to pull out a $20 camera and capture mug shots instead of headshots…  That is no way to acknowledge your greatest asset.  Please read my latest page dedicated to the progression of headshot photography ( http://www.artofheadshots.com/a-headshot-a-modern-portrait-for-online-engagement-branding-advertising/ ).

Now, headshot is becoming a standard practice for all industries and professions to have a professional image of yourself in linkedin, twitter, facebook and a dedicated social media website to one’s individual vocation.