RYOHEI YOSHIDA, Mask (PEOPLE 2023)

The pandemic forced us to change our life. Masks are one of the iconic items during the pandemic. Some people struggled to wear it, but I needed to wear it. Now, we almost overcome that tough situation. I try to show this process through my photographs. This is a series of portrait. The pictures on the left side show the face with a mask, the right side is the face without a mask. The pictures in the middle shows the face hiding item which express their identity. My models were variety of nationalities and generations. I would like to represent the diversity of Australia. One of the model hide eyes instead of mouth. According to cultural psychology research, people from Western culture tend to look at around mouth to recognise their feeling, whereas people from Asian culture tend to look at around eyes. This might be one of the reason why Western people don't like wearing a mask. Is it easy to guess their facial expression?

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.