Headshot – A photograph of someone’s face, head and shoulders.

Developed from portraits, they find there origins, traditionally from passport photos, résumés for actors musicians etc.

This style of portrait helps to clearly define the subjects facial features as well as provide a clear basis for people to make assumptions on someone’s character, possibly based of appearance (like how they dress).

The classical origins, find themselves dating back to 1839, where photographer, Robert Cornelius was one of the first to experiment with the ideas of headshot portraits.

In 1854,  André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri  produced a more cost effective way of producing these headshots by cutting up full-sized plates into 4 separate small portraits. These photos soon became known as Carte-de-visite, translating to visiting cards.

These grew in popularity across both Europe and the US, where families of wealthy class got them to exercise their wealth. With some people such as queen Victoria getting one to flex her status.

In the 20th century, they soon developed into a secondary purpose of being used as promotional material.

(promotional photo of Katherine Hepburn in the 1940s)

The modern headshot is now used as an art form, used for exploring different ways of portraying the face. Some elements of the classical headshots can be found in Professional headshots, used for marketing purposes, someone’s influential status and image, such as a celebrity can be sold for their likeness.