These portraits were made for use in the book, Crying Eyes, by Mackey Howe. You can find photographs of the book itself under the Open Hourglass Press index at the top of your screen.
Crying Eyes is an exploration of the connection between fear and sadness. Both are seen by most as negative emotions to be avoided, but what if there was value in acknowledging them? Emotions cannot be controlled, so why not give them all, negative or positive, the space to exist? Before these pictures were made, Mackey Howe asked each model to think about what makes them cry and what makes them afraid. He then asked each to wear the black mask before being photographed. The questions were used to evoke sentiments in the models and later the answers were quoted and displayed as part of the final book. The mask is an identity blocker used to highlight each models’ eyes.
