Photographer:  Marko Stamatović

Evolution of communication between people. From the most primitive ways such as tribal masks all the way to modern emoticons, which are now modern means to express human emotions. The set is composed of portrait photographs in which different messages, emotions and attitudes are expressed through masks via traditional face painting. The portraits itself are represented in a shape of a totem, on seven different poles, where each totem pole is representing a certain human emotion and in a way that shows the evolutionary process of personal human communication. Face painting as means of communication and recognition dates all the way to the dawn of humanity and in some culture it is still used as a way of communicating.

Today, the development of mobile phone technology and the Internet has offered great possibilities in connection and communication, as distance is no longer an obstacle. Still, a need for a way of quick and recognizable expression of emotion has emerged; painted faces that had roots in the culture of their carriers were replaced by small digital faces which have become means of expression for everyone, regardless of their culture and religion. With the appearance of social networks and a more hectic style of living, the use of emoticons has become a truly irreplaceable way of communication between people, especially the young. Because of such facilitation and modern lifestyle, what was once warm and intimate in a contact of two people face to face in real space was replaced by sterile and impersonal contact in cyber space.

Because of those reasons the whole set is created as 7 totem poles, where totems represent the relationship with our forefathers, tradition and source of first forms of expression of human emotions.