(Photo by Karen) Here at the Yahoo! Directory, we see a lot of strange online trends. Some we can appreciate immediately, and some are guilty pleasures that we enjoy secretly in our cubes when no one is watching. But some just leave us baffled. When we first heard about "sleeveface" our initial reaction was "huh?" So... you take an old school LP cover, you hold it in front of your face, and you take a picture? Okay, but why? We get the appeal of collecting vinyl, and we know (all too well) the joy of composing goofy pictures. But where's the creativity in just holding up an album cover? Then we spent some time browsing through sleeveface portraits and we finally understood the beauty of the sleeveface. The best of these portraits aren't just people holding album sleeves in front of their faces. They recreate or extrapolate the scene beyond the original 12" by 12" jacket. They give the original subject a new context, a different perspective, an unusual body, and sometimes even a new gender. They add hair and costumes, props and instruments -- and sometimes, if they're careful and maybe a bit lucky, the image is almost seamless. We have seen the error of ours ways: Sleeveface isn't just a bizarre Internet trend -- it's a new art form! Now, if you'll excuse us, we need to charge the digital camera and dig our LPs out of the attic. Suggested Sites... Sleeveface - submit your own attempts, or learn from the pros. Flickr: Sleeveface - pool of users' sleeveface photos. Flickr: LP Portraits - sleevefaces by another name. Facebook: Sleeveface - join the LP-covers-as-masks community. Waxidermy: Album Face Mugs - a collection of album covers turned into portraits.

Directory categories: Album Cover Art, Vinyl Record Collectors, Music Photography, Thematic Photography, Thematic Travel Photos

Archived under: Arts, Fanatics, Humor, Music, Parody, Photography, Sleeveface

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