We Tried Mark Zuckerberg’s Tricks to Look Taller in the Photos
Didn’t you think that Mark Zuckerberg is tall? According to a 2010 New Yorker profile, he is “only about five feet eight inches, but appears taller because he stands with his chest and back straight, as if being held on a rope.” Wired writer Graham Starr believes that Zuck seems tall for a different reason: he poses pictures of himself to exaggerate his height.
Zuckerberg does not wear vertical stripes or platform shoes (or Timberlands ). But in promotional photos from his US tour of “I’m Not Running for President,” he often stands closer to the camera or holds up higher when others walk or lean around him. Look at his shoes in the photo of the truck above, next to the shoes of the person behind him. Either Zuckerberg has giant legs, or he is much closer to the camera than meets the eye.
In fact, this is a prop for him. Looking taller next to other people is much more difficult than in solo photographs . While that shouldn’t matter to anyone, Zuckerberg must maintain his image. 58% of Fortune 500 CEOs are over six feet tall , and the last president below Zuckerberg was William McKinley . But Zuckerberg seems a lot taller, eventaller than Bill Gates’ 5ft 10 on the couch .
Most online sources, including the dark world of celebrity forums, point out that Zuckerberg is only 5 feet 7 inches. IMDb divides the difference by 5 feet 7.5 inches . Either way, I feel a sense of kinship as I have 5 feet 6 inches on a good day. So I went with my colleague Patrick Austin to see if we could use Zuckerberg’s tricks to make me look taller.
At first we started lightly, with a subject that was already shorter than me. Walking up to the camera, I easily doubled the height difference.
But it was an easy regime. All I have achieved here is to make someone else look short. Can I look taller than someone else, or even taller?
I couldn’t even put my hand on the shoulders of our next volunteer. So instead, I just headed towards the camera.
I believe we achieved some parity in this last shot, even if I had to wave my hat over my head in a desperate attempt to confuse the viewer. Without a pair of $ 200 elevator shoes, I clung to this hat hoping it would give me an extra optical inch. It’s time for a tougher test: group shots.
These two men were not only taller than me, but fit enough to highlight my skinny torso. I did something desperate: I stood on tiptoe.
Patrick realized that the “get close” ploy sometimes reached its limit. Without the ultra-low eye drop, our volunteers were enough to betray our height difference. Plus, I forgot to fool the camera (more on that below), as Zuckerberg did with his herdsman friends.
Finally, we tried a varied group shot with a whole range of heights. Our volunteers kindly ignored my naked leg stance and even bent over to give me a comparative advantage. I’m pretty sure the “move towards the camera” trick paid off until our volunteers turned it back on me. Again, the hat was essential.
We’ve found three main ways to look tall around other people:
- Move closer to the camera, but “trick” by turning slightly towards the camera to show that you are as far away as your companion.
- Maintain excellent posture. Shoulders back, chin up, legs straight. But, like Zuckerberg, look casual, not like you’re standing at attention.
- Put on your hat and carry it high.
- Find the shortest person in the group and stand next to him.
Looking above may not fix the long-term psychological damage of being short , but it can fool the public, at least until you Google it.