Over recent years, many teams have moved away from full face black makeup to alternative colours, the biggest shift being during the 2020-2021 pandemic.
See all our Face Paint pages:
- Main Face Paint FAQ page
- Face Paint Guidance
- Historical references to face paint
- Legal and Insurance issues
- Photos on Web sites and Social media (this page)
Advice to Members changing from full face black make-up – Website Photographs
There have been some queries from member sides and external bodies (eg festivals inviting Morris sides) about the use or of existing photographs of members who formerly used full face black make-up.
The Morris Federation committee does not wish to alter history, nor to obliterate past practices, but to move forwards.
A good first step is to add a statement to your home page about the change of face paint.
If you wish to keep your previous photographs and documents online as part of your side history, but acknowledge that a chance viewing might cause offence or distress (and consequent difficult emails needing careful response), your website manager should be able to put them on a page with a dialogue box, explaining the nature of the photographs and a ‘click here to acknowledge’ before viewing.
On social media platforms you could add an explanation in a post, or in the ‘about’ section.
Until we are all out dancing again and can rely on a number of action photographs being available to upload to websites and social media, you may want to take a couple of informal pictures of your new make-up for the time being.
Feedback
If you have any questions, or anything at all you wish to discuss with us on this topic, or any experiences of moving away from full face black makeup, or statements from your team that you wish to share, please do email us at feedback@morrisfed.org.uk.
Last updated: October 2020
