Classic Professor Poses

16 December 2011 at 1:30 pm Peter G. Klein 20 comments

| Peter Klein |

I need a new head-and-shoulders shot for my webpage, and am trying to choose among the classic professorial poses. See samples below. What do you recommend?

Classic

In front of books

Holding chalk

In front of chalkboard

Pipe

Arms folded

At computer

Hands folded

Hands folded (profile)

Holding book

Stern look (keeps 'em away at office hours)

Finger on side of head

Entry filed under: - Klein -, Ephemera.

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20 Comments Add your own

1. Troy Camplin | 16 December 2011 at 2:06 pm

The answer, of course, is sitting at your desk, computer on and in view (with a paper you are working on visible on the screen) on one side, small chalkboard on the other, in front of bookshelves with an open book in your lap, held open with one hand, the other hand holding your pipe, in profile, with a stern look on your face.
2. alastair philp (@ajvphilp) | 16 December 2011 at 2:07 pm

How about looking innovative and out reaching and appearing with headset on far,ed by monitor as if giving a webinar?
3. alastair philp (@ajvphilp) | 16 December 2011 at 2:08 pm

Far,ed should be framed
4. David | 16 December 2011 at 2:16 pm

Maybe walking past a $100 on the ground. Or standing in front of a “free lunch” advertisement with a puzzled look on your face.
5. Per Bylund | 16 December 2011 at 2:21 pm

How about “in action” like this one? http://www.antiwar.com/photos/perm/typewrit.jpg
6. stefanecho | 16 December 2011 at 2:31 pm

Funny!!! How about holding Road to Serfdom out in front of you to warn of The State like you would a cross against a vampire?
7. Henrik | 16 December 2011 at 2:35 pm

Don’t forget “Leaning on books”:
8. FC | 16 December 2011 at 3:51 pm

Wearing a Hawaiian shirt and safari vest, standing in front of a building in a foreign country.
9. Shawn Ritenouritenour | 16 December 2011 at 4:44 pm

Do you have a good one of you “in action” so to speak in front of class or giving a lecture. I remember how prized a baseball card became if it featured a photo of a favorite player in action.
10. David Hoopes | 16 December 2011 at 10:04 pm

Mine looks like I have an ulcer. I really was in the process of smiling………
11. William Sjostrom | 17 December 2011 at 5:52 am

You left out the classic “head tilted with chin resting on index finger”.
12. Rafe | 17 December 2011 at 5:57 am

Number 1, or 8 (holding your own book with the front cover visible.)
13. StPuff | 17 December 2011 at 8:14 am

Pipe. I can’t believe there’s even a question.
14. Randy | 17 December 2011 at 12:15 pm

Shawn is close. You need the picture of Yourself standing before a group of supplicants (students) with a hand gesture (vaguely benedictory, vaguely admonishing) taken from a high angle that clearly shows you to above them — head, shoulders, torso,… and intellectually.
15. Rebecca | 19 December 2011 at 6:38 am

Perhaps avoid “Pipe”
16. Peter Klein | 19 December 2011 at 9:43 am

I can’t believe no one has mentioned the Indiana Jones pose — with gun and whip.
17. Randy | 20 December 2011 at 10:42 pm

I can believe that the Indiana Jones pose didn’t leap to mind for the individuals considering your portrait. But since you brought up movie icons, perhaps we can re-evaluate the possibilities.

Pee Wee Herman on the bicycle
Lee Marvin in Cat Ballou
George C. Scott as Patton
Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate

Others?
18. Ooh Honey Honey | 21 December 2011 at 7:09 pm

If your ideas are any good then they will survive a picture of you naked on a moped save for gumboots, corset and gladiator’s helmet.
19. Peter Klein | 21 December 2011 at 10:05 pm

I’m going to test that last hypothesis using a computer simulation, rather than a natural experiment.
20. Brian | 6 January 2012 at 8:27 pm

I like the arms folded look with a smile. It says I’m confident, happy, and friendly.