This series of photographs uses magazine cut outs of various facial features and expressions in an uncanny way, to address the many ways in which people “put on a face” for outsiders. Magazines provide an interesting selection of facial features due to the large amount of beauty and self-improvement ads throughout the pages. These ads reach audiences that are no longer happy with their current lifestyle, and offers them suggestions on how they can “improve” their situations as well as their appearances. The people that are photographed in these ads appear happy, carefree, and excited about all aspects of life, providing the necessary encouragement to the reader.
This work removes eyes, mouths, and noses from their original contexts and places them onto a new face. Applying these features directly to the face creates a collage of emotions and expressions that either mimic or contradict the expression of the model. Through photographing these compositions, the image is flattened and creates an illusion that confuses the space between the real and the perceived. Put on a Face manipulates the real in order to critique the way that humans compile different emotions and expressions to reveal to others.