Leonard Nimoy’s secret selves

Everyone knows that beloved actor Leonard Nimoy will forever be associated with his most famous role: “Star Trek’s” Mr. Spock. Of course, Nimoy went on to have a successful career in acting for decades after “Star Trek.” Becoming known for just one iconic character can challenge any actor: Nimoy even wrote a pair of books balancing his own identity with Spock’s. The first, “I Am Not Spock,” was published in 1977, and the second, written nearly 20 years later, was called “I Am Spock.”

Nimoy continues to work on another artistic passion that has a lot to do with the exploration of identity and self: portrait photography. His latest photo exhibition is called “Secret Selves.” It’s being shown at Mass MocA (the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art) and also at the R. Michelson Galleries in Northampton, Mass.

Nimoy asked his subjects, all of them residents of Northampton, to reveal their lost, hidden or fantasy selves to him and his camera. The result is an elcectic series of images of ordinary people in extraordinary outfits, such as a Superman costume, fur coats and tighty-whities.