I read recently that in the medical world there have been some clinical trials where they they have injected botox into the areas around a patients mouth to basically push thier  facial muscles to form a kind of permanent smile - The surprising result being that  because the patients were ( essentially ) forced to smile permanently - their overall mood improved....

This discovery led me to wonder how ( hypothetically ) such Botox treatment would effect the type of models  I like to shoot . Many of my models are very sweet  and happy young women - but man can they pull off the "bitchy look " So I am wondering - if such models were given Botox treatment to give them a permanent bitchy  look ( which I so love ) would their personalities sour as a result

Please dont take this  discussion too seriously - I mean it tongue in ( botoxed ) cheek

There are thousands and thousands of nerve endings in our faces. I like to run the road of emotion in shoots. Everything from sober, to bitchy to happy to everything in between. By doing that you can zone in to the model's strengths and weakness's.

Beyond all photo technical bs and make up/stylist, the only thing left is emotion. However, emotion plays the most important role in model photography. One forced mood is a one look wonder and any permanent fix on a look of a certain mood just ruins it all for me, regardless of a certain look I prefer.

On any given day a model can change a look by simply his or her mood. This is why models who seem to be diversified and offer a range of looks are usually, uhm, emotional human beings.

Tongue and cheek I realize, but it does bring to light how important mood and emotion is to model photography.

J T

I'd love to see this article if you have it. How can the injection force you to smile when botox results in paralysis of the area?