A faceshot a day as he ages away

{ Podcast this essay } Here is a most interesting video of a man who took a picture of his face everyday for eight years. I think the most interesting parts are when his hair grows in, and also when when his beard and mustache grow in. Given his age, there is not much change, if any, in the basic structure of his face, which leads me to believe he was over 25 when he started the project. This would be a far more interesting project if he snapped the pictures between ages 35 and 45, when some distinct facial features begin to be noticeable due to aging. Also, many people tend to see a large increase of gray hair within a certain decade of their life, and so later sets of pictures would capture these more noticeable changes.

I'm not sure if women would rank him high as a potential mating partner or not, since he seems to have conflicting attributes.[1] Of course a lot would depend on what phase the moon is in: "Women have been found to prefer the scent of symmetrical men and relatively masculine male faces more during the fertile (late follicular and ovulatory) phases of their menstrual cycles than during their infertile (e.g., luteal) phases."[2] Such evaluations of male facial structure are not just germane to women either:

Men with highly masculine faces were judged more likely to get into physical fights, challenge their bosses, sleep with many women, cheat on their partners and knowingly hit on someone else's girlfriend. Those with more feminine faces were judged to be more likely to be good husbands, be great with children, work hard at their jobs even though they didn't like them, and be emotionally supportive in long-term relationships.[3]

I also liked the analysis in this article concerning who gets trusted to be the moral-acting bodyguard: "Men picked the less masculine-looking men to accompany their girlfriends on a weekend trip to another city," researcher Daniel Kruger said, "and both men and women would prefer the less masculine versions as dating partners for their daughters."[3]

REFERENCES

"Living My Life Faster - 8 years of JK's Daily Photo Project" vimeo (Accessed 12/15/2007)

[1] "Does he like kids? It's written all over his face. Women can tell whether he's a family man, study finds" MSNBC (Accessed 12/15/2007)

[2] "Facial masculinity and fluctuating asymmetry" Evolution and Human Behavior (Accessed 12/15/2007)

[3] "Does He Love You So? Maybe It Really Is In His Face" Science Daily Jan. 30, 2007(Accessed 12/15/2007)

O.