Sleeve Face: The Portrait within A Portrait

The money shot or banknote face featured previously was a nice diversion from the more serious portraits of this blog. If you tried to make your own money shot at home, you probably encountered some difficulty because of the small size of the bill. Not so with Sleevefaces or LP Portraits. If you happen to have any old vinyl record covers, simply put them up to your face, pose appropriately, and click the shutter. You now have yourself a sleeveface, the instant portrait within a portrait.

A sleeveface, otherwise known as a vinyl portrait or LP portrait, is a hybrid photographic portrait wherein the subject holds up a vinyl cover to his face, with the cover design's outline matching that of the subject's body. The resulting photograph should give the impression that the sleeve's face is really the subject's face. Hence the name sleeveface.

The current fad began around 2007 when a sleeveface was uploaded to Facebook, but it's not unreasonable to believe that the idea to put up a vinyl cover to one's face and take a picture must have existed long before the Internet.

The beauty of vinyl record covers as alternate real-life faces is that they're large enough to carry life-sized images on them. All you need to do is put your face up to a cover and take a picture. This in contrast to moneyfaces wherein you have to carefully adjust the distance between the banknote, your face and the camera. With the right lighting and angle, sleevefaces can create a satisfyingly good illusion.

The style of the past decades in which vinyl records were still popular also presents a unique twist to creating sleevefaces. Many cover design can be over-the-top, but even the more somber ones can present photographic challenges. Remember, the cover only takes up the area of your face, so you're free to pose the rest of the set as you will. In most cases, what's happening outside of the cover is what's actually most interesting.

Looking to find more portraits within portraits? There are a number of websites that cater to sleeve faces, the most popular by far is SleeveFace.com. There's also SleeveFaced.com and SleeveMyFace.com. Don't forget about the Facebook Group and Flickr Group. Finally, if you find yourself online, flip through the pages of the book Sleeveface: Be the Vinyl which is 192 pages of album cover fun.