When I was growing up, Halloween always meant the hunt for the coolest, craziest costume, raiding the neighbors’ houses for candy, and the sticky sugar-high aftermath. Ultimately, it all came down to the mask and to the mystery of who you wanted to be for one night out of the year. Here, nine of our photographers tell us about their mask images, whether wacky, elegant, nonchalant, or truly haunting.—Elizabeth Krist, senior photo editor

A Baining fire dancer wearing a kavat mask appears from the edge of darkness into a ring of burning embers in Gaulim, located in the Baining Mountains of East New Britain, Papua New Guinea. The hypnotic fire dance ceremony is performed at night, to an orchestra of