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A mask can be as revealing as concealing. “To masque the face” is “t'unmasque the mind,” English novelist Henry Field tells us. There are masks and costumes so powerful they obliterate the wearer’s personality and change him or her into another being entirely. The ceremonial mask, suggests Herbert M. Cole, professor emeritus of African art history at University of California, Santa Barbara, allows the wearer to truly say: “I am not myself.”

For more than 30 years, Phyllis Galembo has been fascinated by masks and costumes and photographed them in countries from Benin to Zambia. Most recently, she has turned her lens on Mexico. Her newly published book Mexico Masks/Rituals (Radius Books/D.A.P.) restores the mask — and the political, cultural, religious and social messages it can telegraph — from tourist commodity to its role as an artifact of ritual and celebration.

We spoke to Galembo by phone. The interview is edited for length and clarity.

A Photographer’s Vision Of The Magical Masks Of Mexico

Photos: Phyllis Galembo

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BLUE BELT. #illustration #woman #fashion #fashionart #inspiration #shape #abstract #contemporaryart #jewelry #color #nudepalette #feminist #mouvement #lucieclementcestmoi https://www.instagram.com/p/B4KHSSroDOp/?igshid=1lhcznott69ur

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Frank Sinatra performing in Monte Carlo 1958

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Books by women, on women…

The Tigress of Forli: Renaissance Italy’s Most Courageous and Notorious Countess, Caterina Riario Sforza de Medici, by Elizabeth Lev

Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough; The Queen’s Favourite, by Ophelia Field

Queen Anne: The Politics of Passion, by Anne Somerset

Fabricating Women: The Seamstresses of Old Regime France, 1675-1791, by Clare Haru Crowston

Athenais: The Life of Louis XIV’s Mistress, the Real Queen of France, by Lisa Hilton

Madame de Pompadour: A Life, by Evelyne Lever

Marie Antoinette: The Last Queen of France, by Evelyne Lever

Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany, Lyndal Roper

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International Women’s Day is annually held on March 8 to celebrate women’s achievements throughout history and across nations. It is also known as the United Nations (UN) Day for Women’s Rights and International Peace.

1909: The first National Woman’s Day was observed in the United States on 28 February. The Socialist Party of America designated this day in honour of the 1908 garment workers’ strike in New York, where women protested against working conditions.

1910: The Socialist International, meeting in Copenhagen, established a Women’s Day, international in character, to honour the movement for women’s rights and to build support for achieving universal suffrage for women.

1917: Against the backdrop of the war, women in Russia again chose to protest and strike for ‘Bread and Peace’ on the last Sunday in February (which fell on 8 March on the Gregorian calendar). Four days later, the Tsar abdicated and the provisional Government granted women the right to vote.

1975: The United Nations began celebrating International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March during International Women’s Year 1975.