Performing Identities
Performing Identities is a series of wet collodion, passport-size tintypes that revisits this historically significant photographic process to explore the intersections of photography, identity, and colonialism. It specifically examines how photographic archives have shaped national identities and contributed to the construction of "otherness."
Using the primary photographic technique of the Victorian era—once employed to reinforce exclusive societal narratives—the series delves into questions surrounding othered identities and portraiture.
Approaching the work from a decolonial perspective, its creation centred on principles of mutual benefit, interdependence, and collaboration with participants.
The project began during Refugee Week in 2017, when I invited individuals from my social network who identified as immigrants to my studio to co-create a series linking portraiture with migration. The process was participatory, allowing each person to choose whether to identify as an immigrant and voluntarily engage in the project. Participants were welcomed into the studio, introduced to the collodion process, and gifted their own tintype portrait.
Through this participatory and performative framework, the project treats national identity as a fluid construct. Rather than imposing definitions, participants first chose to identify as migrants and then decided whether to visit the studio and take part, granting them full agency over their self-representation.
The open call, shared through my social network, was designed to attract individuals interested in contemporary art and those intrigued by the rare opportunity to learn about and experience the collodion process while receiving a tintype portrait.
The result is an archive of over 200 tintype portraits of arts-related individuals in London who identify as immigrants, myself included. This collection represents performed self-biographies, captured through the most archival of photographic processes. It serves as a legacy of contemporary reflections on identity, photography, and the collaborative production of art.
Performing Identities has been exhibited at The Photographers' Gallery in London (UK), Château Lamazière in Paris (FR), and Le Centquatre-Paris as part of Festival Circulation(s). The project has been featured in Mivhel Poivert's book Contre-culture dans la photographie contemporaine, Photomonitor, Radio France Internationale, Yogurt Magazine, L'Oeil de La Photographie, Le Quotidien de l’Art, Art Visions, and other publications.
