SMOOTH SURFACES: DISCOURSE OF PASSPORT PHOTOGRAPH AS A REPRESENTATION OF ORIGIN

Abstract

This article asserts the discussion of the concepts of root and identity through passport photographs of author's family as found objects. Being a third generation member of a family immigrated from Bulgaria, who hasn't have a narrative belongs to the past, such as migration, root and ancestral homeland makes it necessary to examine and reconsider the possibility of the memory reminder and the origin representation of passport photographs. For this purpose, what identity and root, and how they are represented are debated through the first meanings of passport photographs following their rearrangement and reconstruction. What do passport photographs represent and what do they express in the memory of a third generation immigrant? In this context, the concepts of Freud's 'oedipal' and Deleuze-Guattari's 'smooths surface' will form the basis for a discussion on how passport photographs create visual information and discourse through the effort of reaching the root.