The many faces of fear

"There is nothing to fear, except fear itself".

I took these pictures on the Saturday after we went to Wolverhampton. I took them after I had just came back from the hairdressers. When I was at the hairdressers I need to get some money from the atm across the street, on my way back to the hairdressers, a man followed me into the salon, said he's seen me around perry barr before, that he liked me and he would pay for me. I was panicking abit and I didn't want him to pay, but I also was slightly shocked to discover he know I go to perry barr- seeing as I do not go there very often. So that outing gave me the idea to images that are based around fear.
 I just took them in my room in front of a white piece of paper I stuck on my wall and  I experimented with shutter speed to depict the panic, confusion and uncertainty that takes place when you are overcome by fear. I wasn't trying to be myself  in these portraits; i was trying to be something else. I'm not to sure why I painted a white mask on my face (I probably took influence from Nicholas Mepahne's work). Someone said during the critique week that these look like mugshots, and I agree. The background is stripped down and basic, the only that is kind of exposed is the "thing" in the portraits, but even then, there is a mask protecting the it. We don't know what it is or who it is and I think the simplicity of the portraits opens the images to a wider range of questions.

I'm thinking of doing a series of images and putting them together to make a stop motion video. I'm going to jot down some idea to see what I can come up with.