Masks-show By Masha Svyatogor

“Masks-show ” series was inspired by how some of my model-friends, whom I’d photographed naked by mutual consent, demand that I give them the original pictures because, for one reason or another, they want to destroy them. When that happens, I find myself choosing between work ethics and the copyright I’m entitled to. A compromise is impossible: the model occupies the author’s territory, effectively devaluating the significance of his art. My work as a photographer is not protected in these cases; therefore, I’ve decided to “protect” my pictures by depersonalizing the models, masking their faces with someone else’s—the faces of women of a past epoch taken from reproductions of works by painters like Sandro Botticelli, Rogier van der Weyden, Lucas Cranach the Elder and others. I think my project sheds light on issues of ethical nature—issues of trust, consent and exploitation. Who’s the victim: the photographer or the photographed woman? Where does consent end and exploitation begin?