World Leader Series

This series began after watching news coverage of the United State invasion of Iraq. After the ‘defeat’ of the Hussein regime, I was watching a television news report where the reporter was standing in front of public art in the image of Saddam Hussein. The work was a large mural on the side of a building that was in the process of being painted out.

The image was quite beautiful, not necessarily from the standpoint of regime change, but from an aesthetic view. The majority of the image was gone, leaving behind merely the shape of Hussein.

I photographed various magazine photographs of world leaders, reprinted them and then literally painted them out. I always contemplate with photographs and the freezing of time how one will be remembered through their image. I also wonder that with the leaders of today when all that is left is their image in a history book.

The painting out of the image symbolizes the fall from power. How easy it is to paint someone out, how easy it is to lose control.