Sage Sohier describes the impetus for her project About Face, portraits of people with facial paralysis caused by either Bell’s palsy, tumors, strokes, accidents, or congenital nerve damage:
Most people I photograph are acutely aware of their imperfections and try to minimize them. Some have confided in me that, in their attempt to look more normal, they strive for impassivity and repress their smiles. They worry that this effort is altering who they are emotionally and affecting how other people respond to them. While most of us assume that our expressions convey our emotions, it seems that the inverse can also be true: our emotions can, in some ways, be influenced by our facial expressions.
(“8-Year Old Girl with Brown Hair” from the show About Face, at the Foley Gallery in New York, April 17 – May 24.)
The Dish 