Photo ID (2009)

Entanglement (2011)

The images presented here seek to act as a reflexive process by allowing the viewer to imagine their own affinity with the processes of photography-based collection, production, and storage. In the age of total CCTV coverage and mass accumulation of personal information, anonymity is traded for alleged security benefits and promises of safety and protection, largely through surveillance by the State. Science is implicit in this act. The processes of capture, reproduction and copy are inseparable from photographic rituals that record the minutiae of millions of identities. In this work, the tensions between individual identity and data processing are observed but never resolved.

There are many indicators to express an identity. It can be through country, language, accent, food, clothing, association - the list is endless. Even within these conceptions, there are differences unknown to the stranger but critical to the initiated.

This project does not attempt to strike bold lines in trying to understand identity in the twenty-first century. There are no obvious images of a grand nationality or televised official commemorative celebrations. This project takes its cue from the margins, the peripheries of recognition and understanding of what having an identity can mean. For example, the subtlety of recognition when we notice a ‘foreign’ accent in a word or someone not quite understanding the significance of a particular phrase. I want to show the multiple nature of these connections as well as how our identities co-exist with each other, employing visual research as a strategy or a bridge connecting the themes of identity and science.