Identity to Acrobacy
The acknowledgement of what a person is, by himself or by the others; the civil personality of this person, legally known or recorded, is what put him in a bar! behind the bar or not we are all recorded and chased; we have all this identity plate around our neck.
In this project I asked people to send me their own identity photos and ask people around themselves to send theirs. I searched on internet and find some prison identity photos and find a collector who was collecting prison photos from 10’s to 80’s. I asked him if I could use his collection in my work and he kindly let me. In this installation you see 1352 identity photos from people around the world and not just from one country, to actually show that wherever we live with any kind of law, the rule remain more or less the same.
The very first photographe made in camera ,was taken by Joseph Nicéphone Niépce in 1826,1827.
After his death, Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre, his partner continued experimenting, and evolved the process which would be known as the Daguerrotype which was known as the main way of photography.
Very shortly after the release of his invention, the governments noticed that photography could be very useful for the judicial authorities. A photo of the face of a person (photo portrait) would be much more descriptive than a written description.
The earliest photos of prisoners taken for use by law may have been taken in 1843,1844 in Belgium and England. By 1857 some police departments and galleries displayed the daguerrotypes of prisoners. By 1860, mugshots was popularized in most parts of the world.
By 1876 mugshots were used as photo identifications in identity documents for the same reason; a photo portrait is more descriptive than a written description.
So the governments started to archive every individuel by photographing them by law and made them the subject. But intentionally or not they couldn't put themselves out of this system since they posed in front of camera too.
The acknowledgement of what a person is, by himself or by the others; the civil personality of this person,legally known or recorded, is what make him a subject !
Art work's description :
The artwork was represented in an exhibition called "Ideology Meets Implementation" in 2017.
The work consists of multiple panels to which hundreds of identity photos are attached. The panels were installed in an enclosed dark space and visitors were invited to view the photographs with the light of a torch. There was a sharp strong flash light every now and then in this dark space. This light presented the moment that the person become recorded. This work aime to question the way in which nations,states and disciplinary systems define individuals, using a normative system of recording, capturing and following the trace of the individuals. Kazemi's collection includes photos from old and new prison archives, ID cards, driving licenses, badges, passports,etc.
