Masks!

• Photographer
  Samuel Quo Vadis

We go about our daily lives wearing a cloak, a veil, a mask - revealing only certain sides of ourselves to family, friends, co-workers, and to the people we pass by in the street. Yet inside each of us exists many different manifestations...where hidden personalities hold dreams and desires we never reveal to anyone but ourselves. The "Masks!" series of photographs seeks to lift that veil by paradoxically covering a portion of the subject's face. By hiding certain features with shadow, fabric, paint, found objects and fabricated masks the way we see that person is altered...and it also alters the way the subject sees herself, allowing her the freedom to express facets that may have been repressed: qualities ranging from innocence to sultriness, from mysteriousness to candor, from strength to submissiveness, from introspection to joy.