Darling

2009, 26 x 18 cm, c-print

Collected by Neue Galerie, Universalmuseum Joanneum, Graz (AT)
 

Fingerprints have been used as an additional identification feature in Austrian passports since May 2009. Among other biometric identification documents, passports of this kind make the fingerprint the portrait of the 21st century. From the fourth month of inception, the ridges of an individual’s fingerprint remain the same for the rest of his/her life. Removed from forensic, administrative contexts, a fingerprint can thus be seen as a person’s non-ageing portrait. On the one hand, this portrait knows no superficiality, instead of capturing the unchangeable aspect of the portrayed. On the other hand, it reveals none of the traces life experience has left behind.