Sorry for the Mess - Latest Photo
What if I let the Mask Down?
This week for my thesis project, Sorry for the Mess, I created this image titled What if I let the Mask Drop? This image is a representation of the idea of “masking.” Something that happens with consistent regularity for people with ADHD and Autism, is that the people around us tell us we are too loud, too excited, or just too much. So what we do is mask out personalities and out tendencies to better fit into social norms. We tone down our excitement, our physical movement, and our personalities to make those around us more comfortable. We have to put up walls to the people around us because they can’t take who we are as ourselves. And this can be quite exhausting.
So this week I wanted to show the dichotomy between the professional self that I present for the average society to see, (you will see that the foreground image is my current headshot on my bio page). And then I included the goofy faced “others” within the image to portray the side of me that is goofy and hyper and off the wall. Now of course, there is only so much you can do to show this within an image, so they feel a bit toned down. But I used a shirt that some would consider “childish” (though personally I love it) along with the faces to emphasis that dichotomy.
Another important factor within this image is the inherent humor. This is a running thread throughout my series that is there for a couple different reasons. The first is that sometimes all you can do with having a mental illness is laugh. Whether its out of humor or frustration, the day will determine that. Another reason is that the series could be quite heavy without a bit of humor built in and I don’t want my viewers to get viewer fatigue while going through the images. And finally, sometimes humor is one of the best ways to help someone learn and understand a subject that is already hard to do that with.