The Mask Series

I am fascinated by masks and mask-making and I recently came across this extraordinary project from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. Photographer Inge Morath and cartoonist Saul Steinberg teamed up to create a 'mask series' of people wearing cardboard boxes and paper bags illustrated by Steinberg.

The idea of disguise is central to Steinberg’s art. In the world as he saw it, everyone wears a mask, whether real or metaphorical. People invent personas through makeup, facial expression, hairstyles, and these facades become who they are. 

As Steinberg wrote, 'The mask is a protection against revelation.' 

You can see a lot more by visiting the Saul Steinberg Foundation here.