Annual Scary Person Collage: Michael Needham

Every October I make a photo collage based on a scary person. (See previous efforts here and here.) This year, I chose for my subject Michael Needham, the CEO of Heritage Action of America.

For me, the best part of this picture is how I took an ordinary close-up promo picture and uglified it, using photo retouching techniques in reverse. I enlarged the bags and circles under his eyes, enlarged his nose, darkened the lines on his face and his stubble, made his ear misshapen and his eyebrows bigger and messier. I also used the liquify tool to turn his smile into a sneer.

Now he looks like a zombie, with the sinister Gentlemen of Heritage elongated and lurking in the background.