This series looks at obstacles to reading faces, playing with Shannon and Weaver’s model of communication (sender, transmitter, medium, interpretation, and receiver).

People are asked to make their neutral, passport face behind a sheet of fabric (the medium). They are lit from above in a typical portrait light, then from below in a classic scary torch-below-the-face light. The facial expression behind the fabric doesn’t change.

Do these people still look neutral? Viewed close, some of the images are almost incomprehensible; does that mean that the closer we look, the less we see?

Thanks to Alexandra Pholien.