The Portrait, 2015
fine art print on Hahnemühle photo rag ultra smooth 305 g/m²
120×144 cm
The Portrait addresses the wealth inequality, highlighted by the slogan “We are the 99 percent,” by focusing on the other side of the equation.
The work brings together, in a single photographic print, the faces of the 100 wealthiest individuals listed in Forbes magazine’s World’s Billionaires list for 2015. The composite image—created by printing these 100 photographs on top of one another using the draft mode of an inkjet printer—forms an anonymous figure. The ghostly traces of all these faces merge into one, resembling an identikit in a biometric photo format.
Only when viewed from a certain distance does the photograph reveal a human figure, evoking the distance between those who constitute the portrait and the rest of society—the 99 percent.
Installation view; Dirimart, Istanbul
photo 1: Işık Kaya
