For this project, I wanted to use portrait still photography and photoshop to capture and represent the concept of the hidden emotions that everyone feels but rarely shows. Show the smile on the face but also what is really being felt under the surface appearance. In my first iteration of this project, I used two images of each of my subjects to show the two faces. For the final version, I used Photoshop to layer the photos to further the concept of the two faces with one being a mask over the other.  My main reason for wanting to attempt to depict this through photography is because like many people my age I struggle with mental illness and have to cope with and hide it away a lot of the time and put on a strong professional face for my school job and peers. In the US 60% or 3 in every 5 college students report having a mental illness with the most common being anxiety and depression. I want to put a face and image to the hidden aspects and struggle with mental health for me and people like me. I used photo sets in a large collage to create an opportunity for reflection between the images in my first iteration but decided to layer them and go black and white as I felt it added that missing piece to really show the idea of a mask. Showing what they are and how they truly feel. During the course of the two weeks that I took photos, I was lucky enough to get seven different men but never photographed myself, the true inspiration behind this whole idea. As such, the two additional photos I took and layered are of me the creator. The young men represented here were chosen as they had a story that resonated both with me and also with my prompt and questions, those that I think best represented my desired outcome. I wish that could share the specific stories but they all requested that we keep them as a spoken conversation between me and them.