TEK

Passport series is a multiple groupings of scanned passport images, belonging to citizens, immigrants, migrants, travellers and visitors to Canada.

As global citizens living this multi-cultural world, a passport is a must have document when travelling across boarders. Perhaps it is the most important document an individual can own despite its bland appearance. It is a textured, coloured paper booklet, not much bigger than a hand, but it has the authority to enable or deny basic freedoms. A passport validates and affirms our identity and sense of belonging. Its presence can be powerfully reassuring and its absence achingly restrictive.

In this series of photographs, minimal arrangements of the fronts and backs of various passports are presented in groups. These images of passports were captured through a scanning process rather than photographically captured to resonate the actual passage through the security checkpoints.

The scanning process is deemed to be a credible and authentic representation of the original documents. As the scanner light sensor passes through the surface of the passport, it picks up colours, symbols, textures, indicators, and scars from each surface to fully identify this passport as unique to its owner. This gathered information now represents the owner’s life journey to date and access in the future.