In viewing the photographs from YiYi Wan’s Repression, Release and Beyond series, two things stand out: the artist uses a pinhole camera and she is the subject in many of the photographs. This body of work reflects her desire to challenge the way we perceive gender roles in today’s world. Wan uses historic photographic techniques to address contemporary issues, thus blurring the boundaries between past and present, dream and reality, and the personal and the universal.
YiYi Wan’s photographs make use of perspective and space--the space in front of the camera, and the space women occupy in the world--to explore the way women are perceived both in society and through a camera. The pinhole camera is a device that has been used by artists since the Renaissance to render a three-dimensional subject on a two dimensional surface. Historically, this type of camera has been referred to as a camera obscura (meaning “dark room”) and was used to make the first photographs in the mid-19th century.
The process of creating images with a pinhole camera is very intuitive, and the resulting images are personal and direct. Light reflected from the subject travels through the pinhole and forms an image on the film without having to pass through a lens. Since a pinhole camera has no viewfinder, the photographer cannot frame the subject and the results are never predictable.
Because a pinhole camera has no lens to sharpen the focus or correct the perspective, the images are usually soft and somewhat distorted. The result is often surreal and dreamlike, displacing the viewer in time and space. In YiYi Wan’s photographs, the strange perspective often resembles the images taken by a surveillance camera. We feel as if we are secretly peering into a very private world.
The camera has long been used as a tool for portraying women as objects and reinforcing stereotypical roles for women in society. Using a pinhole camera is a way of liberating the photographic process from the objectifying gaze of a modern, technical camera. In this way, Wan is reviving an old process to provide a new way of looking at the contemporary issue of gender roles.
The texture visible in YiYi Wan’s images is reminiscent of prints made from collodion wet plate negatives, a process which was popular in the 19th century. This process involved making prints from glass plates that had been hand coated with light sensitive chemistry and exposed in a camera while still wet. Often, if the photographer did not apply the emulsion carefully, the prints revealed the texture of the emulsion on the glass plates. The effect of this texture is that the presence of the artist is more visible in the work. The photograph begins to resemble something that was made by hand rather than a mechanically produced object. Wan has retained a similar look in her photographs by allowing the developing chemistry to remain on her Polaroid negatives. This is a deliberate choice on her part, and the texture contributes to the visceral, raw quality of her images.
We can’t overlook the fact that YiYi Wan is the subject in many of these photographs. She is an active participant in the narratives she has created to explore and question the way women are seen. This does not necessarily mean that the photographs are specifically about her. Wan is the creator of work that is based upon her experience and perceptions, but her message is universal. The fact that she has chosen to be the subject of her own photographs lends the work an authenticity that would not exist otherwise. While some of these images are more staged and incorporate symbolic objects, other images are more subtle and elegant, relying on gesture and body language to convey their messages.
Wan’s photographs are made mostly in personal places, such as the interior of a home or church. The stories that she tells are suggesting that she, and all women, have the right to reclaim these spaces. The pinhole camera exaggerates the relationship between the subject and the space she inhabits. In some photographs, the subject seems to blend into the environment, becoming almost invisible. In other photographs, the subject fills the frame and confronts the viewer with a direct gaze.
YiYi Wan’s photographs are at once beautiful, humorous, raw and elegant. She is addressing a universal issue, but she is doing it through imagery that feels very personal and intimate. The success of this work lies in the relationship between the photographic process and the artist’s message. In other words, Wan has crafted the perfect visual language to explore the experience of being a woman in today’s world.
