Pictures of the week: What I Be, by Steve Rosenfield

Some of us have our secrets and insecurities writ large across our faces: inferiority, neediness, loneliness. Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

The hundreds of participants in photographer Steve Rosenfield’s ongoing project have resorted to felt-tipped pen. Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

Volunteers spend 45 minutes talking to Rosenfield – 'It’s like a therapy session' – before being instructed to complete the following sentence: 'I am not my...' They then translate these deeply felt truths and anxieties into pithy statements, which they write on their faces and arms. Photograph: Ganesh Photography/Steve Rosenfield

Thus the man displaying 'ulcerative colitis' wrote, 'I am not my chronic illness'; Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

and here, the subject wrote, 'I am not my eating disorder.' Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

The power of the images, Rosenfield says, lies in their intimacy; most of us can identify with some of the descriptions. If any intrigue you, delve into his online archive at whatibeproject.com and read the subjects’ personal statements. Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

The best are illuminating. But the project’s greatest strength is its size – a mass of humanity, each person with their individual hang-up on display. Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

Rosenfield focuses on the negative because the project stems from his own experiences. About 12 years ago, in his mid-20s, he was working in IT in Boston, Massachusetts, 'earning good money, in and out of relationships, really materialistic and never letting anyone know my feelings', he says. 'I wasn’t happy.' Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

He left his job, travelled the world, and started to open up about himself. Almost instantly, his relationships improved and he turned this simple notion into a photography project. Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

Faces are straight, expressions serious: 'They draw you in more than smiles.' Photograph: Steve Rosenfield

At its heart, he says, it’s a social experiment. So what are his conclusions? 'That we all want to tell our story. And that it’s OK to do so.'

To see more of Steve's work, go to www.whatibeproject.com Photograph: Steve Rosenfield