/ big + tall / #fakejamer /
My identity is metastasizing. Stories abound about the hijack of financial and administrative identity, but what about the theft of one’s likeness? The first may be more ruinous, but the second has its own peculiar dimensions. A headshot of mine (from 2009…courtesy of The New School) has proliferated on the internet for reasons that I cannot quite fathom, and it turns out that many have used it--for reasons mundane, explainable, and mildly nefarious.
Using a reverse image search process, I have been documenting on Twitter pirated instances where my headshot shows up, though each time with different identity. My first search turned up seven or eight instances of my image but with different aliases. I was John Stekovic. David Watson. Larry. Each week, new versions of “me” emerge like mushrooms after a rain. #FAKEJAMER is an ongoing archive of my likenesses—over 30 to date—used to pitch everything from security systems to LinkedIn identities. By making this story public, I hope that I can understand better this uncanny internet story, warn others about it, and, perhaps, reclaim my many selves in the process.
