Well technically, I guess this is the mask of a Dalek, a fictional extraterrestrial race of mutants, from the British Dr. Who television series. The model is my daughter Hannah, who was seven at the time the photo was taken in our yard in Fairbanks, Alaska. We were actually in the process of returning the mask, as it was a birthday gift for her brother Zachary, but proved to be so uncomfortable he couldn’t wear it. I convinced Hannah to put it on for a couple of frames before I boxed it up. That’s about the limit of her tolerance for modeling for photos. In fact, she says I actually paid her a $5 modeling fee at the time. The photograph was made with my Hasselblad camera and 80mm lens on Kodak Portra 400 film, scanned on a Nikon 9000.
Charles Mason
Back to March - April 2012
About the Author
Charles Mason
Charles Mason first picked up a camera in 1970, at age 11. He has rarely put it down since. Charles, along with his wife Julie, moved from Virginia to Alaska in 1984. After several years at the local newspaper, and then completing an Art master’s degree in Documentary Photography, Charles was hired as the professor of photojournalism and photography at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in 1990. He still rabidly pursues his own work, along with teaching, and is currently working on two projects, one on zoos and one on kudzu. Notable awards include POY honors, the Oskar Barnack Award at World Press Photo, and a Rasmuson Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship. A recent publication of note is the cover of the bestselling book Water for Elephants, which was shot at a small circus in Fairbanks. To see more of Charles’ work, check
out masonphotos.com.
