“Mixed Emotions” is a project that utilizes Plutchik’s Wheel of Emotions (1980) to highlight the importance of nonverbal facial cues in expressing human emotion.

The primary colors (yellow, red and blue), represent 3 primary human emotions; happiness, anger, and surprise, respectively. The secondary colors (orange, green, and purple) represent more complex, secondary emotions; anticipation, shock, and disgust, respectively.

By first photographing these emotions and their respective colors individually, I then collaged these primary and secondary emotions together to create unique combinations of facial expressions, challenging the viewer’s perspective on human emotion. What feelings do you perceive when looking at these combinations of nonverbal emotional expressions? 

Models: Mintyce Earley, Rachel Morenoff