Fridae

Lance Lee is back with a new photography exhibition featuring works from his groundbreaking picture book of the same name, My Sisters, Their Stories and new works for his book sequel on fashion photography featuring transsexuals at Utterly Art Exhibition Space, 208 South Bridge Road #02-01, from October 7-17.

First published in 2003, the book bears testimony to the courage and spirit of some of the transsexuals living in Singapore and Thailand. The former photojournalist with the Singapore Straits Times collaborated with Leona Lo, a transgendered writer for a full year and a half to document the emotionally charged lives of those living with gender dysphoria. The book is a rich portrayal of the brave transsexuals who dared to bare their souls in the hope that they would eventually be better understood and accepted by society.

In the words of Eugene W. Smith, "Humanity is worth more than a picture of humanity that serves no purpose other than exploitation." Lee adopts Smith's philosophy in his work. Unlike stereotypical photojournalistic work, Lee's subjectivity brings out the humanism and the emotional complexity in these situations, as his photographs are always honest and reverent.

In the case of this photo-exhibition, the sheer purity of truth in the pictures arose primarily out of Lee's patience and gentle perseverance, which earned him the friendship of the transsexuals he photographed. He never manipulated the subjects, but allowed them to be free to be whomever they wished to portray. He knew that sooner or later, their true selves would be revealed. For the trust and confidence they had in Lee, he too was free to photograph them as they were, and are.

Here are portraits, depicting the lives of transsexuals, but they are more than mere documentation of their "alleged" lives, as we might have imagined. Here are images that are momentous and yet, executed with remarkable control. These portraits reduce life into single moments, to the very pulses of the heart. Frozen in time they might be, but like eager children, the pictures want to reach out, to share their thoughts, to invite the viewer to explore with them. So many photojournalistic images require words, or cutlines in conjunction to explain themselves, but Lee's pictures retain such communicative power that they inspire words to life, instead of vice versa.

However, portraying the moment does not mean indulging in random snap shots. These images are exquisitely composed, retaining their intimacy of the moment as a result of the photographer's close interaction with the sisters, which stripped the self-consciousness out of close-up shots. Robert Capa, who used to say, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough", would certainly have approved.

Utterly Art invites all Fridae readers to its opening on Oct 7, Thursday, from 7pm.

My Sisters, Their Stories
Venue: Utterly Art Exhibition Space, 208 South Bridge Road #02-01
Date/Time: October 7-17/ Mon-Sat: 11.30am-8pm; Sun: Noon-5.30pm
Tel: 65 6226 2605
Email: utterlyart@pacific.net.sg