Project Statement

Photo ID Series, 2017

            “We need a revolution in our minds, to rediscover the light we have inside, rediscover what it means to be a person and not a clone, not let our identities be defined by our color, our race or our religion.”

Rob Riemen, interviewed by Adriana Malvido in Laberinto, cultural supplement to Milenio

I belong to a fourth generation of portrait photographers.  I remember my father’s studio, with his sets, lights and props selected to capture the personality of each sitter. That was the glamorous world of studio photography.  But on another less sophisticated plane, ID photos were his bread and butter, the only reliable means of identification there were at the time, besides official documents and fingerprints.

In today’s world, dominated by science and technology, identification methods have evolved to such a revolutionary extent that we seem to have been reduced to numbers and codes.  Day by day we are losing our capacity for astonishment at the greatness of the human being and its individuality.  This progress has been achieved at the cost of other equally important values, both moral and spiritual.

This series is an invitation to reflect on what there is, beyond DNA analysis and technological instruments, to measure, identify and “file” a person. To what extent have we lost our capacity to value the individuality of each human being?