Making Faces Playing God

<p>Wearing a mask-putting on another face-embodies a fundamental human fantasy of inhabiting other bodies and experiencing other lives. In this extensively illustrated book Thomas Morawetz explores how the creation of transformational makeup for theatre movies and television fulfills this fantasy of self-transformation and satisfies the human desire to become the other.</p> <p>Morawetz begins by discussing the cultural role of fantasies of transformation and what these fantasies reveal about questions of personal identity. He next turns to professional makeup artists and describes their background training careers and especially the techniques they use to create their art. Then with numerous before-during-and-after photos of transformational makeups from popular and little-known shows and movies ads and artist's demos and portfolios he reveals the art and imagination that go into six kinds of mask-making-representing demons depicting aliens inventing disguises transforming actors into different (older heavier disfigured) versions of themselves and creating historical or mythological characters.</p>