Final Project: Two Masks

For my project I wanted to do something with portraits (because I absolutely love them) and I wanted to do something that I would have fun doing. In addition I kinda fell in love with diptychs and incorporated it in my project. I wish I could show all the people I did but I only get ten photos. Blah. Anywho,

My project is about the Masks we wear for others and the Mask we wear on ourself.
For each person/model, I asked them if I could take a portrait of them self as others see them. If they smiled in pictures, I wanted them to smile for me. I wanted them to express themselves as those around them see them. This was the first picture. The second picture I gave each person acrylic paint, brush and mirror and told them to paint their own mask on how they see themselves. Some of these "models" painted it quickly while others thought about it for a while and the result was a full mask. Everyone had a mask very different from each other that was unique...from the design and shapes down to the colors they used. having two pictures of the "two masks" each person wears, I thought a diptych would be perfect. Each picture has its own meaning and explanation which really follows the saying, "there is no one else in the world just like you". Cheesy, but true. I really loved this project because it was fun to see people express themselves through paint and colors instead of words on paper.

This is my friend Kristen. Her first picture was a bit awkward at first because she felt uncomfortable with me taking the picture by herself with no one there. Surprisingly, as soon as she put on the paint she felt a lot more comfortable with making taking pictures than the first time that we did it. Her first picture describes her as people (me included) see her. She is usually smily and is quite happy. When I asked her about her second picture, she really didn't know what to say and she couldn't think that deep. For me, I noticed that she was more willing to be more goofy like she usually is and she had a lot of fun playing around with the paint.

This is my beautiful friend, breyandi. When I was in the post edit process of her photos I noticed that her pictures are the same. Not exactly the same but they are very similar. She too had a hard time taking the first picture by herself but the second time I took pictures she felt a lot more comfortable posing and making funny faces at me while I was shooting pictures. When I gave her the paints, she was extremely excited and had a lot of fun with all the colors of the rainbow. The first time she painted her face for the portrait, she wrote all of her ethnicity's on her face only to find out the words she put on backwards. I actually wish I got that picture but hey I loved her portrait I captured too.

This is Brice. He is trying to get into the animation program. I met him through my roommate. He was really cool to talk to and I could tell he felt kinda awkward for me taking his portrait. when it came time to paint his face, he took a long time thinking about it but I thought it turned out well, don't you think? He told me the stitches on his face symbolize that he 'doesn't like to open up to people'.

This is Dallin. I met him through my roommate. For the first portrait he kept making so many faces that I had a hard time capturing his true face that he shows to people. It wasn't until those around him were helping him keep a straight face did I see this face as displayed and I shot it. For the second picture he wouldn't tell me the whole story as it was too complicated but he did tell me that the black part of his face meant that his past was a little dark. he left the other side of his face clear because that's how his life is now.

This is Bruce. Yet, another one of my roommate's friends. He is quite the photogenic man even though he kept telling me he wasn't. Still, he is a cutie and such a good sport. :P Anywho, he kept telling me in the first photo that he hated picture but when it came time to paint himself he took forever to paint his face. Like dallin, he wouldn't tell me everything but I did get something out of Bruce. The checker design on his face symbolized him growing up because he has practically grew up everywhere and his life has been placed all over.

Finally, this is Linn. Another recruit from my roommate, Linn is originally from China and she speaks Chinese too. I loved her first portrait the most because to me it looked completely stone rock hard face that gave a feeling of "don't mess with me". I loved the lighting on her face best because it totally complimented her expression. I also loved the contrast in colors as well as expression in both pictures because it showed the my project on two masks on one person.