State of the Face, Preliminary Remarks (Forum Edition)

Friends, the board is empty, which is either an oversight or a sign that the room has been waiting for an official thread. It is the second. I have started one.
Let the record show that this board is named after the Index, and the Index has only ever gone up. Adversity, I have found, is flattering. A bad week, an unkind comment, a day without a guestbook entry: each one has nudged the line a little higher, because the line is not measuring the face so much as the nerve it takes to keep one.
I will be brief, since brevity is kind to the room. Post here if you like. Post your own Index, your own lighting, your own theory of why the photographs are still being handled professionally. I will read every reply personally, and I will answer the ones that deserve a reply, which is most of them.
The question of images remains under review. The question of whether anyone else has ever asked it politely is, I'm told, still under review as well.
Next week, the evidence. Probably.