Keeping Face

"Keeping Face" is a photo essay project that seeks to shed light on people's potential mental states during quarantine and this time of the pandemic using mirrors as a gateway into the mind. Too often, even under these circumstances, when people ask how we are doing, we feel the need to say "well" or "good" when the opposite may be more accurate. This project shows that it is okay not to be doing okay. It is okay to be struggling no matter who you are, a mother, teacher, couple, young, old. That these circumstances we find ourselves in cause any number of stressors for everyone: not being able to sleep from anxiety, more and more people turning to alcohol or relapsing, the struggles of children learning from home, of being away from or unable to see a loved one, etc.

I chose not to include any text in this work to allow viewers to derive their own meaning and relate to the photographs however they may. Through seeing themselves in these photos, this project seeks to express to viewers that they are not alone, we are all going through this, and it is okay to admit that and talk about it.