October 12, 1998

Lifelines is a response to a world preoccupied with identification through passwords, pins and codes. The hand is the departure point for this project. Fingerprints are entirely individual and traditional proof of our identity.
Including the hand-print and hand gestures the person is more fully exposed. Lifelines can be read, revealing the individual's past and future, while the hand gesture reveals aspects of their nature and personality. This is something our digital identity fails to provide. Participants were asked to choose place their hands on a high resolution scanner. While some felt friends and family were necessary to help identify themselves, others chose to go solo. By processing in black and white ethnicity become irrelevant. The fine lines in the image have the quality of an etching. What the viewers see is not only a hand portrait, but an impression of a life lived, left behind.
The hands are titled by date of birth with no identification by gender, race, cultural background or religion. These hands should be seen closely grouped together communicating like an extended family, a community of
hands. In these times of racial, religious and cultural disparity these hand portraits simply talk about us, the human race.