DISTANT FAMILY: Yams in the Coat
Digital Photography, Collage, 2022
For my ongoing series, Distant Family, I photographed and collaged elements from memories of my family and my hometown, Suzhou, China. The piece Yams in the Coat encapsulates my grandfather's cherished recollections through a staged and surrealistic lens, highlighting both the physical distance between us and a memory from over a decade ago. The inspiration stems from the action when my grandfather would pick me up after school, keeping roasted yams warm in his coat. As a child, I believed his coats held a magical ability to produce food and snacks. His simple yet profound acts of care fostered an enduring sense of security and love. Given geographical constraints, I captured elements that resonate with these memories locally. I photographed 粉墙黛瓦 Fen Qiang Dai Wa (powdered walls and black tiles) at Vancouver's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, which mirrors the architectural essence of Suzhou. To evoke the emotional distance and timeless connection, I traced the silhouette of my grandfather and me from an old photograph, transforming it into a cast shadow on the wall, symbolizing the enduring bond that transcends physical space and time.
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LOOKING AFTER:
Photography as an Act of Care
Emily Carr University of Art + Design x Capture Photography Festival
Archival Inkjet Print, 81.28 x 101.6cm
Exhibition Dates
Apr 2, 2023 – Apr 30, 2023
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The photographic medium is shadowed by its exploitative traits. The notions of “capturing” and “taking” photographs highlight an imbalanced power dynamic that renders one side of the lens as dominating and the other as vulnerable. The exhibition Looking After: Photography as an Act of Care seeks to counter this narrative. It centres a different perspective in which image-making is based on a relationship of respect and the photograph is a gesture of care. Emily Carr University’s artists ask: How does photography make us care? How does it depict care? And why do we care about photography?
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Here, images serve as a bond – even to those who are not with us anymore. They highlight photography’s close relationship to memory, convey its fluidity, and articulate how images form and express our identities and deepest connections. The look through the viewfinder doesn’t depict the subject as “other,” and isn’t one of investigation, but rather one that is concerned, curious, and compassionate. The works created for this exhibition reveal a sense of belonging not only to our communities but also to the natural world and the land we now inhabit. They ask how we care for ourselves and our own bodies through image-making. Looking After: Photography as an Act of Care brings together emerging artistic voices that understand the urgency of needing to care and examine how a camera can constitute, conduct, or create a work that demonstrates this. It is the study of care through a lens.
Curator Birthe Piontek is the Assistant Professor of Photography, Audain Faculty of Art, Emily Carr University
Capture x Emily Carr is a partnership between Capture Photography Festival and the Audain Faculty of Art at Emily Carr University of Art + Design
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Faculty Gallery, 1st Floor,
Emily Carr University
of Art + Design
520 E 1st Ave
V5T 1A7
Vancouver, B
Canada​
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Care Book
Published by Booooooom
Care Book: Yams In the Coat, Vancouver, 2024​
​Included in Care, a publication by Booooooom, this work appears alongside responses from 60 women-identifying artists and photographers exploring the theme of care.
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Published by Booooooom
Edited by Kimi Hamada + Anna Schneider
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146mm x 190mm
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128 pages
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perfect bound, printed in Canada
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