Proof of Union is an exploration of the fetishistic quality of snapshot images. The images are the archive that my former husband and I submitted to the USCIS as “proof of marital union” when we applied for his green card. They function simultaneously as the legal evidence of our relationship and as our quotidian history. They are at once specific and sentimental while also being familiar and ordinary.
When we separated, I cut out our figures. The excision of the couple in the images opens them to a broader narrative of photographable moments and the emotional cache that is invested in them while pointing to the repetitive structures and codes of snapshot images.
When we separated, I cut out our figures. The excision of the couple in the images opens them to a broader narrative of photographable moments and the emotional cache that is invested in them while pointing to the repetitive structures and codes of snapshot images.