"Girl with Watering Can"
One of the important skills of successful profile writing is the ability to evoke a specific reaction on the part of your readers. By this, I mean that of all the characteristics that you could include about a subject (and there should be dozens of possibilities), you decided on just a significant few, and these few gave the impression to your readers above all of the idea or purpose you had in writing about the subject in the first place.
Consider this famous painting by Auguste Renoir:
"Girl with Watering Can"
Renoir has created a painting that evokes a dominant impression. Knowing nothing of late 19th century French culture, or of gardens or dress codes, we can still know this subject. If you had to describe in your own words what this young girl is like or who you think she is, what words would you choose? If several observers highlight the same traits, then Renoir's portrait passes the test: he has created a dominant impression.
In another example, consider this famous Depression Era photograph by Dorothea Lange:
Just from the image you see here, what can you say about this subject? Who is she? What do you think you know about her?
Or this Pulitzer Prize-winning photo:
Photo by
Stanley Forman
In each case, you have a limited amount of data that you can observe to make a case for a dominant impression. But in each case, you have some very specific characteristics that you can identify as critical for understanding the subject. While these are done in pictures, you can do the same in words.