By Erin Wood
For Little Rock-based photographer Ashley Murphy, the pandemic has offered a unique opportunity to document how others are surviving and even thriving during this unusual historical moment.
What began as a photography project and murals displayed in downtown Little Rock became Murphy’s new 216-page coffee table book, The Masked Project: 100 Portraits. Released October 13, The Masked Project presents 100 portraits taken during the spring 2020 surge of COVID-19.
From behind cotton and polypropylene, stars and grommets, leather and paisley, feathers and studs, eyes unmask worlds about personhood and pandemic life.
About the project, Murphy shares, “As a photographer, I have always been fascinated with the eyes. With more people covering their faces during the global pandemic of COVID-19, we are offered a unique opportunity to focus on the eyes and the individuality of each person. Many of my subjects have said this experience was exciting. A simple, quick photoshoot outside their home became something much more. It is a way to be a part of something bigger, a way to show the world who we are.
“The Masked Project has been a creative outlet, a way to document this time, and a means not only to briefly interact with those who were ultimately distilled into these 100 images, but to really see them—to take time out of my day, pause, and see them. It has been an inspiring experience.”
This 8.5 x 11 coffee table edition is available for $69.95 at www.etaliapress.com and through local and national booksellers.A Hot Springs native, Erin Wood is a writer, editor, and publisher in Little Rock. She owns and runs Et Alia Press (www.etaliapress.com). Wood is author of Women Make Arkansas: Conversations With 50 Creatives.
