faceless portraiture
01.2025 - 04.2025
In close attention to presence and absence, faceless portraiture approaches portraiture without revealing the face or body of the sitter. The series turns instead toward the spaces people live in, the objects they keep, and the stories attached to what surrounds them. Through photographed environments and collected fragments of conversation, each portrait becomes a study of identity without the usual markers of name, age, gender, or appearance. Rather than asking the viewer to recognize a person through how they look, the work asks what can be understood through what they care for, remember, and choose to keep close.
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The work is built through a slower process of listening and looking. Each person guided me through their living space, speaking freely about the objects, rooms, and details they felt connected to. These conversations were recorded, transcribed, and paired with images from their environment, allowing their words to sit beside the photographs as another form of portraiture.
Rather than relying on the face as the centre of identity, the series asks what else can hold a person’s presence. A worn object, a decorated wall, a collection, or a quiet corner can become a way of knowing someone without immediately placing them into categories. The portraits unfold through what is kept, remembered, cared for, and chosen.
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