Proof of Power is a portrait series that explores the shifting face of influence in the digital age. In a world increasingly shaped by networks, platforms, and code, traditional hierarchies are being replaced—or redefined—by a new architecture of power. This series captures the figures who have come to symbolize this transformation: not just as individuals, but as archetypes of the systems they helped create, disrupt, or weaponize.
From anonymous creators to meme-fueled billionaires, from institutional rebels to digital prophets, Proof of Power reflects on how influence is constructed, perceived, and validated in a time when identity itself is fragmented, performative, and algorithmically amplified.
Each portrait in the series is abstract and conceptual, resisting traditional representation. Instead, they render the subject through a visual language of distortion, repetition, code fragments, and symbolic layering. These are not likenesses, but psychological landscapes—attempts to represent not a face, but a force.
The name Proof of Power borrows from the cryptographic vernacular—proof of work, proof of stake, proof of identity—but recontextualizes it in the realm of cultural and psychological influence. In the blockchain world, “proof” is a mechanism of trust; in this series, it becomes a metaphor for how power is asserted, performed, and believed.
Some figures in the series push toward decentralization and transparency. Others embrace spectacle, speculation, or platform dominance. Some blur the lines entirely. What binds them is not a shared ideology, but a shared role as symbols of a new era—an era where power no longer resides in institutions alone, but in virality, narrative control, digital capital, and sometimes, strategic absence.
Proof of Power is also a meditation on presence and myth. What does it mean to have influence without identity? To be a creator without a face? Or to become a brand so large it consumes the person behind it? In this series, absence is just as significant as presence, silence just as loud as spectacle.
Proof of Power is not just a portrait series—it is an invitation to reflect on the forces shaping our collective future. Who holds power now? How is it legitimized? Who do we follow—and why?
As viewers, we are not just observers. We are participants in the verification process.
This is our proof.
