Photographer Takes Portraits Of People With And Without Clothes, Asks Viewers To Guess Which One Is Naked From Their Faces

The artist didn't specify which side of the collage features the undressed person leaving the viewing experience as a guessing game. In one case, a dressed subject is on the right, in other - left, so the viewer decides solely by reading their faces. “I chose to mix up the faces so that it was more complicated for the viewer to decide, and would have to look closer to make their own judgments. I also decided not to say which is which, hoping to build conversation in a gallery setting among all viewers,” Dylan told Bored Panda.

This provocative initiative was a base for the ongoing photo series titled “Naked Faces” which derived from a question Dylan was contemplating for years – “what level of nonverbal facial expressions do we show without being conscious of them?” He was on a mission of proving that our faces reveal more than we would like to say or are aware of through comparing images of dressed and people going commando.

The Vancouver-based photographer gathered volunteers willing to participate in nude photography session with a deal that no actual nudity would be captured or published. Then he took the before-and-after portrait of each participant with the purpose, as he explained, “to demonstrate the differing facial expressions between clothed and not, to physically capture evidence of the impact that something as simple as being naked can have on subtle facial expressions.”

He had the idea in mind long before he started but he waited until his girlfriend was comfortable with him seeing beautiful people stripping down in front of him. Why naked, you ask? “I chose for people to be naked, because I was looking for honest vulnerability from the models. I had them remove clothes and jewelry, and asked for them not to cake themselves with makeup beforehand. I also had them standing on a box, to give them a sort of platform to set onto, both physically and mentally” – the artist explained.