'Naked is the best disguise.'
Although humans come in all colors, shapes and sizes, our bodies, and body parts...are for the most part, similar is structure. Although nature has certainly thrown a few curve balls, for most humans, the head is at the top, eyes, nose and mouth out in front on the face, arms at the side, and legs attached to our feet at the bottom.
What defines our character, not the character of who we are as a person, but the character we want the world to see, is all about the outside. The way we walk and talk, the way we keep our hair and most notably, the clothes we choose to wear. Most people may not necessarily think it, but our clothing is a costume, even wearing just a t-shirt and jeans creates a character, the expression of who we want to be that day.
The rules of character have been thrown out the window. There was a time we adults safely told children that they could trust a teacher, a police officer, a member of the clergy. Today we're come to question everyone, no matter how noble their profession may be. I don't think there is any profession however, that has gone through such a profound assassination of character than that of a clown.
We all have both the Yin and Yang, but for clowns, the distance between is immense. It's why they're such a fascinating a subject to explore visually, especially if presented and photographed well. Both model Do_Mar and photographer Eckhard from male2male are experts at the exploration of character. The last time I featured Eckhard's work, his shots of model Aaron Mark, (A Longtime Collaboration) included Aaron taking on characters as diverse as a basketball player, a sailor and hot cop. When I last featured Do_Mar, (Schöne Albträume) he was also in character, donning various facial coverings including a gas mask and even a horses head.
I was thrilled to find one of Eckhard's images of Do-Mar yesterday as I was finishing up my clown theme. This set of images so beautifully capture the opposing sides of Do_Mar's clown character. Although his socks and hat may say whimsy, Do-Mar's costume, along with the colorful balloons and painted on smile are deceptive. With just a quick glance, our clown may appear joyful, but a closer look, especially at his eyes and mouth, tells us happy is just part of the disguise. The character of the clown lays just below the surface, with emotions more complex than the make-up can possibly hide. Check out more of male2male's images of Do_Mar on THE OVER-FLOW HERE:
