This article originally appeared on VICE Germany

Last week, the fourth annual Unseen Photo Fair opened in Amsterdam. Among the extraordinary pieces of work showcased this year is an exhibition by second year photography students from the Lausanne Space for Contemporary Art (ECLA). Led by Dutch curator Erik Kessels, the project is titled The Embarrassment Project.The students were told that as creatives they had to be prepared to make mistakes and be ridiculed. If they couldn't handle that then they were getting into the wrong business. The assignment was simple: "Be brave and create a body of work that feels both embarrassing and liberating. Basically, take a risk and be comfortable with making yourself look like a twat."

It takes a lot of courage to be honest with complete strangers. For some artists, the work ended up being a way of dealing with their plaguing issues, while for others it was probably just a bit of a laugh. Overall, the project's most important outcome is that by exhibiting these hidden neuroses, the artists managed to create visuals that they may not have been able to otherwise.

Below are some of the works, along with the artists' statements:

When I was 17, I overheard my parents making love. I've never been able to forget it. For this project, I asked them to kiss passionately in front of me for as long as they could. I was looking to relive the situation and maybe somehow process this embarrassing moment.

I find it difficult to accept the way I look. I'm deeply self-conscious and shy. That's why I decided to give people around me the opportunity to interpret my self-portrait however they wished. I feel that by exhibiting myself, I gave the viewers complete control and thereby lost control of myself. It forced me to see myself through other people's eyes.

My father passed away when his house caught on fire. While sifting through the ashes of what was left of his life, I found pictures that had been taken at my parents' wedding. These happy clichéd images hide the sad reality of a relationship that was ill-fated from the outset.

When I was five years old, we had a male au pair called Gilles. He was an integral member of our family for a year.

One day, after he had left our household, we heard that a young man had been arrested for pedophilia—it turned out to be Gilles. My memories of him are vague and to this day, I wonder about our time together.

I don't like my nose. It's the only thing I see when I look at pictures of myself. Now it's probably the only thing that you see too. This is a way for other people to see what I see when I look in the mirror.

I tried to reunite my father's siblings, who had been estranged from each other for many years. Martine said no. Claudine didn't respond. François told me that it would be complicated.

These photos are all that's left of their broken relationships.

Life isn't always pretty—sometimes it's disturbing, strange, or even grotesque. These images are my antidote to the always perfect, selfie-obsessed lives that people seem to lead on social media. An honest depiction of an ordinary life.