Photo © Madirakshi

We'd like to see what everyone can do with the "Mug Shot" style. The project was inspired by the photo stream of "Least Wanted", who finds and scans vintage mugshots that he collects from unique sources. They are all amazing, some funny, some scary, some sad.

Least Wanted is not only a prolific and greatly appreciated photographer here on Flickr, he also published a book of his work in 2006, also called Least Wanted;; 306 pages of the best of his collection.

Here is the book description from Amazon:

Punks, sneaks, mooks and miscreants. Hookers, stooges, grifters and goons. Men and women, elderly and adolescent, rich and poor, but mostly poor. These are the Least Wanted. Their portraits make up a small part of Mark Michaelson's collection of over 10,000 American mugshots from the 1870s to the 1960s. Created as utilitarian instruments, and meant to be destroyed when obsolete, they survive as remnants of a bygone era of hard-copy originals, extraordinary visual windows on the past, and riveting physical artifacts, often accompanied by municipal ephemera. They are glued to cards and manuscripts, typed on and rubber stamped. Each suspect has been measured and fingerprinted, documented and classified. Bored, sheepish, proud, coy, tough, defiant, bounced, bloodied, bruised, broken and innocent faces--innocent until proven guilty--stare back at the camera with unmistakable individuality. This is central casting for the Late Late Show of unvarnished reality, and the lineup is full of small-timers, those who have fallen through the cracks. Each subject, each image, is a person, a portrait, a trace, a crime, a clue, a moment, an expression, a frame, a mustache, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter. Each image is evidence, documentation. A record of people and of stories dismissed by history and rescued here. A century of American souls, filed and forgotten, until now. Contributors include Ian McEwan and New Yorker contributor Malcolm Gladwell.

The New York Times wrote a very interesting article about the book and his work in 2006. His passion for mug shots began when he won an old mug shot photo in an on-line auction, and his interest grew from there.

“I started to figure out that I wasn’t interested in famous criminals or people who’d committed big crimes or very violent crimes,” Mr. Michaelson said. “I wanted the small-time people, petty crooks who just fell through the cracks. Instead of being most wanted, these were the least wanted.”

And those of you who live near Chicago should check out his exhibition called "Least Wanted: A Century of American Mugshots, The Mark Michaelson Collection at Intuit, The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art, which opens today and runs through April 12, 2008.

Now, for the details:

It must be a diptych-two images-one that is a profile, and one that is shot straight on, then positioned side by side.
you can use this tool from fd to group your 2 photos together, if you need it: bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php

It must be Black and White, or Sepia, or shot in any monotone color.
If you do not have a photo editor, you can use the online editor www.picnik.com

It must be the face and profile of a real person-you, a friend, your mama, a real felon.

It's great if you can include a sign underneath, but we're flexible on this point.