Cat Walk

Added 1716450868 by Steve Tabor.

Saul Steinberg was a cartoonist for the New Yorker magazine, who used paper bag mask-making to explore issues of identity. In 1958, he started making paper bag masks that turned his subjects into caricatures of the time: wealthy women, sassy secretaries, confident businessmen, etc. Inge Morath, a well known photographer, shot Steinberg and his friends wearing his paper bag masks. At first glance, her images seem playful and humorous, but a closer look reveals a deeper and darker meaning.

This series pays tribute to Steinberg by using paper bag masks to convey a person's identity. A Belgian artist-cum-photography model, Solivagant, was invited to create paper bag masks, with each mask symbolizing different facets of her own identity. She was photographed wearing costumes she selected for the various masks, and photographs of her wearing just her masks were combined with images taken the same week at a Japanese Garden in the Hague.