The Iris paintings reflect the fact that, in the age of the internet, the visual sense dominates our perception of the world. The eye is traditionally seen as a mirror of the soul but it is also a kind of microscopic map of an individual's identity, since each person's is unique. In these works, Quinn depicts an iris at close range, in a photorealist, non-expressive way on a round canvas. The eye is enlarged so that it appears virtually abstract and the pupil appears like a aperture or hole in the centre of a fine, detailed network of colourful lines. Quinn was interested in the idea of making ‘stealth’ portraits of people, at once universal and unique, and not just an image of the sitter, but an actual visual index of their identity.