A profile captures a person's character and gets it on the page. Like a good photograph, a profile portrays a person so that readers feel as though they ve met the subject, and that the meeting was worthwhile. The best profiles, in my view, aim for a balanced or objective presentation, a virtual photograph, and leave judgment, as much as possible, to the reader.
Profiles reveal people by what they say, and what they do.
Joseph Mitchell s stories in Up in the Old Hotel epitomize the profile. On the surface these stories are disarmingly simple, yet they reveal subtleties of character, irony, incongruity, and more. In The Gypsy Women, Mitchell profiles NYC detective Captain Daniel Campion retired from over twenty-five years in the Pickpocket and Confidence Squad and his fascination with the gypsy rackets. Even in retirement Campion keeps files and maintains genealogy charts. It is apparent that through prolonged, intimate contact, multiple arrests and such his feelings for these people are complex.