Blank Expression

Song

Faces and masks have been a bit of a theme for me in recent posts and at the weekend, I was in a local art supplies shop when I saw this plastic face mask on sale for the princely sum of £1.35 and I just had to buy it. I was convinced there was a photo opportunity there.

My other pictures have all been based around creating masks from real faces and that's where I started with this one, trying to overlay someone's face onto the mask but of course, the final result was no different to what I had already achieved. Then it struck me that what makes the mask so spooky is that whilst it is recognizable as a human face, it has no features and no expression. It is a person's features and expression that allow us to make initial judgements about that person, friend, foe, happy, sad etc. So what I needed to do was simply photograph the mask which I duly did. The end result was pretty effective (IMHO) but lacked life - it was just a mask, and this led me to add the eyes. I think it creates a rather haunting final image. If I was to describe it in a single word, I would choose 'trapped' as that is what I see when I look at it.

OK, enough arty farty talk. A much better day at work, yesterday and the main reason for that was a call I had with a colleague in Germany. Sometimes you come across people in life, whether at work or in your social life who impress you and are inspirational. This person was exactly that. A breath of fresh air after some of the jobs worth's I had been dealing with the day before. When I deal with people like them, I fear for the long term future of the company but then my faith is restored when I meet people like Dagmar. Only question is who will have the biggest influence on the company's future. The lone visionary or the multitude?

Di's tooth is now giving her jip. Not sure this is normal, but never having had done what she has had done, who can tell. She won't take pain killers and of course if I try to encourage her to do so, she simply points out that I would refuse if the tables were turned. She has a point - I resent taking medication of any sort. A behaviour I picked up from my father.