Facial hair, when done right, is awesome. No contest.
Photos of facial hair, when done right, are awesome, too.
Photographer Sheri Manson did a series of portraits of contenders at this year’s World Beard and Mustache Championships in Brighton, England for TIME magazine.
So… an excellent collection of finely done images of contestants in the world’s premiere competition in facial hair.
TIME photogallery: The World Beard and Mustache Championships
Appears to be the same background and lighting set up for all 20 portraits. Just goes to show if you combine a good photographer with a good character, you can make some great images and still keep things simple.
The entire event looks like it could be a lot of fun. I did a little digging around and found…
- Jim Naughton’s WBMC portraits (129 of them!) on Flickr
- Luke Stephenson’s WBMC portraits (71 of them) on Flickr
Both Flickr galleries are worth checking out, out of interest and sheer quantity and variety of facial hair if nothing else.
Naughton’s portraits are against a red velvet curtain, and are mostly full body. Cool because you can see the costumes, some of which are really extravagant, but unfortunately the faces and whiskers get a bit lost in it all, and the body language on the lower half of the body usually doesn’t add enough to the photo to make up for it.
Stephenson’s look like they could up be against a matte beige painted wall and seem a little haphazardly done. All claims of personal style aside, my overall impression of the work was… sloppy.
No intention of bashing Mr. Stephenson, though. Looking at his other stuff on Flickr, that work does seem in keeping with what appears to be his style. I guess if you had to categorize him, it’d be “art photographer.” I liked the Budgies set.
Verdict… Sheri Manson wins. Most excellent.
