Ghosts of Google draws on images from Google Street View. Through screen capture and background removal, human figures once scattered in the background like visual noise are brought back to the center.
The work reflects on the shift from photographic portraiture to machine vision. While early portraits carried a sense of presence through stillness and long exposure, today's images operate through geolocation, databases, and automated recognition. They no longer simply record the world; they help position, identify, classify, and manage it.
In Google Street View, the camera does not gaze at anyone. It moves, collects, and records. Those who enter its lens are treated less as persons than as data or noise. Their faces are automatically blurred, while their bodies remain fixed within a global system of vision. These ghostly figures reveal the fragility of human existence under technological hegemony.