We study people for clues to identity. Hair, clothes, jewellery, facial expressions and much more make the person. When seeing someone for the first time whether in life or in a portrait or photograph we each become a detective searching for evidence to who this person is. Who do you think the women are in the photographs below?
A mother? An actress? A victim?
These women are in fact criminals. When I show you the whole picture you will see that these photos are mugshots. The text on the photographs labels, the women and our perception of who we are looking at immediately changes.
Mug shot of Vera Crichton
Mug shot of Hazel McGuinness
I find these photographs fascinating but I’m not sure where I can go with these at the moment. I’m working with the images of nurses I’ve been collecting and these could be included in that work. I can change the identity of these women by giving them different clothes or adding text to an image.
As part of my research I must re-watch Grayson Perry’s series on identity called Who Do You Think You Are?
