What is it about the absence of something in a photograph that makes its presence more apparent? Is it easier as a viewer to project our own visions onto images that are coated with silences? These are both thoughts that occupy my mind as I drift through Singapore-based photographer, Sean Lee’s oeuvre of work that speaks volumes through its quietude.
Lee’s work which is an exploration of connections- be it familial, romantic, or with oneself- is characteristically defined by the play of unusual objects, soft light, shifting shapes between bodies, and portraits where the eyes seem to be the central protagonist in the storytelling. In a conversation over Zoom, Lee explains that for him- photography is all about relationships. There are a variety of works out there that are based off ideas and concepts, but they are for someone else to do. Here, Arttaca finds out more:
What is it about the absence of something in a photograph that makes its presence more apparent? Is it easier as a viewer to project our own visions onto images that are coated with silences? These are both thoughts that occupy my mind as I drift through Singapore-based photographer, Sean Lee’s oeuvre of work that speaks volumes through its quietude.
Lee’s work which is an exploration of connections- be it familial, romantic, or with oneself- is characteristically defined by the play of unusual objects, soft light, shifting shapes between bodies, and portraits where the eyes seem to be the central protagonist in the storytelling. In a conversation over Zoom, Lee explains that for him- photography is all about relationships. There are a variety of works out there that are based off ideas and concepts, but they are for someone else to do. Here, Arttaca finds out more:
What is it about the absence of something in a photograph that makes its presence more apparent? Is it easier as a viewer to project our own visions onto images that are coated with silences? These are both thoughts that occupy my mind as I drift through Singapore-based photographer, Sean Lee’s oeuvre of work that speaks volumes through its quietude.
Lee’s work which is an exploration of connections- be it familial, romantic, or with oneself- is characteristically defined by the play of unusual objects, soft light, shifting shapes between bodies, and portraits where the eyes seem to be the central protagonist in the storytelling. In a conversation over Zoom, Lee explains that for him- photography is all about relationships. There are a variety of works out there that are based off ideas and concepts, but they are for someone else to do. Here, Arttaca finds out more:
While going through Lee’s work in ‘Two People,’ and ‘Cast of Two,' one can’t help but read them as fragments of a family photo album, with stories bursting from the four cornered seams. A pillow gently caresses another on a creased bed-sheet, Lee’s parents slip into one another’s skin seamlessly to depict a single entity, and mundane objects such as dentures, plastic bags, and an uncooked chicken find a narrative in his absurdist imagery.
However, his work ‘Young Love,’ is slightly different and seems more documentative than introspective. But through this style of photography, he still subconsciously places himself in the frames of his imagery, owing to a story that he recounts:
“When I was 17 years old and a student, the girl sitting beside me in class passed away after a short struggle with an illness. Her name was Esther. She had stopped school for a while, but because no one knew the seriousness of her condition, we all thought it was a matter of time before she came back. When she passed away, we did not have the chance to say goodbye.
Today, I am a part time teacher of photography in a new media school. Looking at my students made me think about the days of my youth. I thought about the friends that I used to hang out with, the times I had fallen in love, and all the nights we spent partying. But it also made me think about Esther who died young and did not have the chance to grow up.
I photographed the students in pairs. They were either best friends or lovers. I wanted both to photograph some essence of them as individuals as well as highlight their relationship with each other.
I often tell my students that photography teaches us above all things that our time here is brief. Perhaps this work is a way for me to say a proper goodbye to my youth, and to my friend, Esther.”
This allows me to further understand Lee’s style of photographing which is peppered with semblances of past experiences, the ongoingness of a moment, and the aftermath of it which is depicted through his ‘still-life,’ frames. How do personalities thrive while being invisible in his collection of images titled ‘Room,’ how are his parents unnerved by wearing over-the-top masks and play-acting with raw fish in front of the camera, and who is Shauna, and which part of him did she emerge from? I enquire about these abstractions and how he developed his visual language for each of his bodies of work. Excerpts below:
ZA :
On Lee’s ways of seeing:
SL :
I am inspired by the practices of individuals who make work with quiet, contemplative, and in between moments. A few of them being Emmet Gowin, Harry Callahan, and Judith Joy Ross. I remember when I was at Angkor, most of my peers were documentary photographers who had a sense of athleticism. To them, photography is a fast medium, where you react to what’s in front of you, and try to include moments that are taking place inside the frame as they are happening in real life. I remember learning that it was important to be as unobtrusive as possible, and as time went on I was personally drawn to a slower way of working.
However, I think there is as equal merit in making a picture of something that is happening, as there is in making a picture of something after the action has ended.
They are surprisingly comfortable in front of the camera with barely any reservations. I often get told by image-makers that when they try to photograph their families, they are received by shy and resistant responses, but this isn’t the case in my household.
They are not keen, but they are not hesitant either. They are indifferent, and don’t like it or dislike it. I think that’s what makes it seem so natural, because if they were enthusiastic or too performative, that itself would look unnatural.
ZA :
The word ‘IBITTOS,’ features in your body of work. Tell me more:
SL :
The word is an acronym for “I believe in the therapy of silliness.” In the course of photographing my family since over 10 years, I have always been intrigued with this idea of interjecting mundane life with an action that is completely nonsensical and absurd for no real reason.
I find that the camera is an excuse to make something performative. And over these two years I decided it would be fun to make something that I would have otherwise never done, and allow us to enjoy this time together. Photography is a fast and easy medium to nudge a performance – it only takes a minute or less. That’s the beauty of it, that this time doesn’t really exist in real life, but only within a photograph.
It's almost like a small dream. Imagine if you were to take a 15 minute nap and had a dream, my photographs would be a depiction of that.
Between the years 2007 and 2009, Lee would often inhabit the persona of a ladyboy - a woman he named Shauna. During his time in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Lee befriended a transgender community in the city’s red-light district, and was struck by the curiosity and exhilaration of leading an alternative life. “From some of these friends, I soon learned to shave my legs and armpits, put on make-up and a wig, and strut around in high heels. I was a fast learner. Within a year, I no longer needed my clumpy ‘training’ wedges. Some days, I would be strutting about on my black stilettos like any other ladyboy and there’d be someone who would try to pick me up. Under the neon lights, every bar became a set and every street, a stage,” Lee elucidates in his artist statement.
The photographer does emphasis that Shauna wasn’t just a performance, but an experience that has changed the way he views himself and his surroundings. She exists in bright neon lit photographs that are frenzied, dazzling, and packed with action. Lee later compiled the body of work into a photo-book that was released in September 2014, and was also collected by the MoMA Library.
‘Shauna,’ is starkly different from the photographer’s quieter ways of seeing. I question if the process seems to be deliberate or subconscious, and we converse about the makings of his photobook:
ZA :
On editing and creating.
SL :
The work is clearly deliberate since I was photographing myself as a character. A lot of it was shot at night using artificial light, so that might play a role in it being extremely different from my monochromatic images. ‘Shauna’-the book was made five years after ‘Shauna’-the work, and I realise that while editing, it’s almost like shooting the work again. You’re deciding what to include, process it a certain way, and then sequence it- essentially you’re making a completely new body of work without pressing the shutter.
ZA :
On NFTs and a supportive community.
SL :
For me, the aspect of an NFT is to make work, and if people like the work, they can buy it. This is why I sell them at a very cheap price (5USD), and hopefully reach newer audiences. So far ‘Young Love,’ is the only body of work that I have minted, and I find that the rise of NFTs has been extremely beneficial to photographers in South East Asia where work is currently limited. A platform such as Arttaca that promotes the work to a range of viewers is always a good thing.
I’m currently at a stage in my life where I’m trying not to have any ambitions. It’s naturally hard since you are a human being and are constantly trying to achieve something, be somebody, and have your work somewhere. But for now- Whatever happens, happens.
This interview has been paraphrased with permission from the photographer.