give up your face


Face You

First impressions: a broken doll, a gaping void in its back, tossed into the street… Then: a mirror, a face-like blank slate, reflecting nothing… Slowly we worked it out: a real body, a girl or a woman, holding a mirror to her face for protection. But protection from what? From us? From our gaze? We cling to the old adage that the face mirrors the soul. Give us your face, we demand. Bare your soul! She resists. Giving up the mirror would mean abandonning her dream. (Text of William A. Ewing, Face. The New Photographic Portrait, Lausanne, Musée de l’Élysée