Discipline and Punish

Originally, I used the mask in my "Lonesomeville" project because many of Bellocq's sitters wore them, always a cheap, simple black mask of the type used in carnival celebrations like Mardi Gras.  I assumed that it was to hide the identity of the sitter.  As the project continued, however, I found that the donning of the mask was a somewhat transformational act.  The mask did not really convey much anonymity, but something in the sitter's attitude and bearing was changed.

Masks have been used historically for many purposes.  Often the donning of the mask was meant to create a bond with spirits or a spiritual longing or to imbue the wearer with some supernatural power.  In other situations, the mask was thought to protect the wearer from spirits and magic.  It was often used as an aid to entering a sacred time, time without past, present, or future, both ritualistic and replicable.

For my purposes, the contribution of the wearer in losing her identity and assuming a new was crucial to "the drama of the mask."  The psychic changes and psychological release was a critical subtext of this project.

Ho!  I'm just thinking out loud.  That is the kind of bullshit I hear some photographers spout to make their works seem more profound.  It is bunk.  Sort of.  I mean it is there, but I hate the pretentiousness of such talk.  It evinces weakness and uncertainty.

However, it is early morning and I could think of nothing creative to say, and looking at this image I began to think about "the meaning of the mask" and I began to construct a sort of defense against which my detractors might have a difficult or worrisome time prevailing.

In truth, though, that mask is something.