Masked

‘Unmasking’ is something that happens to spies and those with guilty secrets. Masking, masquerade, is disguise – and by extension perhaps even deception or pretence. The reference is to the altered appearance of the masker rather than to the status of the portrayal. Yet, as the examples of burglars and terrorists suggest, the wearing of a mask, while it may act to drain the masker of personal identity, is not inert even where it is intended only as a concealment. Of itself a stocking mask asserts no other identity, yet the altered appearance of the wearer achieves menace whether or not the viewer feels personally threatened. In more playful context the staring, immobile masked face of even a close friend in party costume has a startling effect. The term ‘mask’ implicitly acknowledges human agency, that which is masked or concealed; but the resulting masquerade has a presence even if everyone is well aware that masking is, after all, only someone dressing up.

- Masks, The Art of Expression by John Mack (page 12, Masking terminologies)

Some use masks to scare others, the blank inanimate and expressionless face can make people feel disturbed

and intimidated.

Masks are used as a form of obstruction to hide or cover our face. They can be used in work places to protect and shield the

face, they are used in theatrical performances to portray different

characters, or some use masks as a way to conceal their identity and watch the

world from behind the eye holes.

Cubists, Fauvists, Expressionists, and Abstractionists of

various 20th century were

inspired by Sub-Saharan and West African masks. Looking at these masks,

artists started being more interested in using

different ways of interpreting the human

face, rather than understanding the

origins and traditional spiritual rituals.

Noire et Blanche(1926) by Man Ray

Danny Treacy Treacy is a British photographer

based in London. I first saw his work at Feren’s Art Gallery in the ‘3am’ exhibition and was really blown away by his work and creativity. His life-size photographs feature standing figures wearing abandoned clothing and creepy suits, staring back at them felt very intimidating. Under the costumes is actually Treacy himself, appearing faceless and enveloped, both threatening and vulnerable.

The items of clothing belong to “the unknown, the anonymous, the lost, the drunken, the deranged, the sexually driven, and who knows, the dead...”

Them

This is one of my photographs taken from a particular photography lesson where I used lights and shutter-speeds that captured the trails and movement. In this photo my friend took, I decided to use myself as the subject and cover my face with a half-beaten mask and cloaked the rest of me in my over-sized camo coat, only having my hands exposed. The idea came from Treacy’s “Them” portraits.

Ralph Eugene Meatyard Meatyard was an American

photographer from Illinois, well known for his masked subjects in his photographs. He created scenes in which he carefully selected the environment and then positioned his models in different situations. His work often looks creepy and unsettling, and sometimes intentionally distorted out of focus to give movement to the photograph. The latex masks he used in his work were found in Woolworths while he was out shopping with his son, “He immediately liked their properties”.

After a few years, he persuaded family and friends to wear the masks and pose for him while he took their pictures. These photographs resulted in being his best known pictures he left behind after he died of cancer in 1972, at age 46.

“But still, why masks? Well, “the idea of a person, a photograph, say, of a young girl with a title ‘Rose Taylor’ or the title ‘Rose’ or no title at all becomes an entirely different thing,” Meatyard once said. “ ‘Rose Taylor’ is a specific person, whether you know her nor not. ‘Rose’ is more generalized and could be one of many Roses—many people. No title, it could be anybody.” And in the same way, a mask “serves as non-personalizing a person.”

And why would someone want to do that? In an essay on Meatyard’s work, the critic James Rhem quotes one of his sitters, Mary Browning Johnson: “He said he felt like everyone was connected, and when you use the mask, you take away the differences.”

Gowin, who posed for a Meatyard portrait, recalls thinking that wearing a mask would surely erase all sense of personhood. “But when I saw the pictures,” he says, “I realized that even though you have the mask, your body language completely gives you away. It’s as if you’re completely naked, completely revealed.”

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/ralph-eugene-meatyard-the-man-behind-the-masks-106625198/?no-ist

Untitled, by Ralph Eugene Meatyard

This is some more of my work from my previous photography project. I found some old masks in my room and decided I would include them in my work, which was to photograph ‘the everyday’ and add an unusual twist to it. I then discovered Meatyard and took heavy inspiration from his work, then me and my friend went to the front of Blundell Street Board School and tried to get shots similar to Meatyard’s photographs.

These were some other photographs we took during the project. I wanted a series of images that allowed you to “gaze through the eye holes” of the masks.

This is a photo I took of myself using the front camera of my phone. Capturing “the everyday” at home e.g. having a bath, while also wearing a mask half sunken in the water.