ALTER EGO

Last year, I helped British photographer Robbie Cooper find subjects for "Alter Ego", his cool, globetrotting photo essay depicting avatars and the people behind them.  A coffee table book version is available now, and of course, it features numerous SL Residents.  There's a gallery of samples in-world, and though they're packed in a tad too tightly there, it's worth a visit; you click on the avatar's photo to see their real world counterpart, and vice versa.  Philip Linden and Francis Chung are among the SL luminaries on hand.

Direct teleport here.  Tracy Spaight, Alter Ego's afterword author, tells me the gallery in Varnish will likely be open only until May 29th.

Update, 3:10pm:  Shortly after blogging this, a hot blonde happened by, and contemplated one of Robbie's many photos of a man who gender bends.

"I am still wondering whether or not I should post my real picture to my blog," she says out loud, then gestures at her curvy features. "[B]ut a bearded guy instead of this? Must I break that spell?

"I tried SL as a joke, sort of," she explains, "and thought, 'Why not be a girl for a change?'  I met friends, got a shop... so it's hard to go back now."  She grins.  "Plus my real life girl likes the idea-- very safe for her."