The work series “Different Persons” (2006) shows twelve faces. Ralf Peters created the series over the course of three years. All twelve images show female faces head-on, in a format that resembles passport photographs. The portrayed have certain striking superficial physiognomic characteristics in common: They are blond, blue-eyed, have a broad forehead and full lips.
In this work series Peters addresses the theme of identity in a society confronted with a visual overabundance of images and information in the mass media. The question of the auratic quality of the original image is evidently part of this inquiry: Are they genuine images of real people or simulations?
Faces and bodies can be created digitally and disseminated in the mass media. In reference to this fact, the artist toys with our expectations regarding perception: Are these real people? In this case, they actually are.
With “Different Persons” Peters addresses the subject of female portraits, popular and pervasive in western art history, with the tools of digital photography.
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