Arts festivals are always rich in symbolic content, largely because art itself is always symbolic. In this sculptor’s festival booth, I found not only a large-scale bronze mask, but also a circus full of acrobats in full flight. Using a wideangle lens, I moved very close to the small figures on the ladder and the acrobats flying through the air just behind them. The bronze acrobats contrast in both mood and meaning to the glowering large-scale mask at left. To me, the empty mask symbolizes life as a façade, while the soaring acrobats symbolize the life as the pursuit of joy and accomplishment. I bring them together within this frame, each sharing half the image. This photograph’s highly symbolic metaphorical approach is very much like life itself – we often must look past the façade to find the essence of life.