Masks by Richelle Swinkels

Masks

by Richelle Swinkels

“We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.” 

     Growing up I always struggled with my identity, who I was on the inside and who I'd allow others to see. As I grew up I began to get better and better at wearing masks and hiding who I truly was. I hid depression and a growing drug addiction. I let very few people see the real me and know who I really was. However, eventually the addiction grew and grew and years later spiraled out of control and was too big for my mask to cover any longer. The mental issues I struggled with mixed with a drug addiction landed me in prison. While I was incarcerated and sober I took classes and in one we learned about Duality, and I dwelled on this concept ever since then. Having two mind frames, two personalities and wearing different masks. The prison even did an entire play on this concept of wearing masks. Seeing that photography was always therapeutic for me I've done a few shoots that have to deal with this. One being my mirror shoot, where the person looking into the mirror is what the world sees and the reflection is what the subject is feeling. I wanted to bring a different spin to the same idea and show this idea in the form of masks. While doing research for my mock portfolio I saw imagery of masks in different ways and tried to come up with my own. And thus it was born.