8-9-10

ArtsInTheHouse - 8.9.10: 

Photos - Peter Marley

Alternative Passports 12/8/10

In a passport photo the face is reduced to physical information, which is used as a record of how a person looks.  It provides an accurate document of a person's physiognomy by harnessing photographic verisimilitude - established throughout the history of photography. Using the deadpan passport composition as the only technical requirement, this series sees the sitter's face transformed into a canvas for spontaneous improvisation.

In 'Alternative Passports' the physiognomic information was skewed and manipulated to become a playful record of how the person wished to look or felt; in some cases the sitter became another artist's canvas meaning they had no control over their transformation.  By photographing each of the painted or masked individuals a record was still being created - a record of the collaboration processes, a record of the creativity expressed, and a record of contemporary styles depicted through the artist's clothes and hair styles.

Critiquing the photographic process in relation to the passport, and prison "mugshot", has been successfully done before by photographers - namely Thomas Ruff.  As the passport portrait has become widely accepted as a form of accurate documentation it is perfectly suited to playful parody and creative exploration.

-- Peter Marley 12/8/2010