Mask

This shot was taken at Union Square in San Francisco with 35mm B&W film. In the midst of busy crowd on a Saturday, he was right there by himself. One man crew. And he was very conscious about his surroundings as he constantly looked around. Whether due to the sunlight or as part of his act, he had this frowny face. And that irony made me start clicking as he started at me.


As I got older, I began to realize most of people wear masks and I am no exception. And it seems like I have always been wearing a mask or many of them throughout my entire life. However, I don't think I had a mask on when I was born so there must have been a period when I started covering my true self selectively. When was it? When could've I started wearing one. I believe it was when I moved back from Libya to Korea when I was 10 years old. From attending a school with about 40 students to suddenly being put in a school with thousands of students, I guess I was subconsciously shielding myself selectively revealing myself. I wasn't judged before in the old environment and in the new environment it was all about comparing and judging others. Pure peer pressure like in a jungle...


These days are constant battle for me to throw off any mask I subconsciously try to put on. Simply because I came to realize whatever others might think of you is quite irrelevant for your own happiness. Their opinions if genuine will matter and should be of some value to you. But most cases they are just their own subjective opinion with no factual bases. So what's the point of caging yourself under the mask?