What if you were asked to select one intergenerational family photograph that you most closely identified with? Perhaps an image has already come to mind. It may be a photograph that you have held onto and revisited over the years, or maybe its an image that you recall seeing as a child, it struck a chord then, and although now the details are blurry, those notes continue to resonate in your memory.
Over the span of two years Ling Yuen collaborated with 20 subjects who each selected one family photograph to re-enact, and in doing so, they graciously invited the artist to take part in their personal and historic morphology. The result, Of being and becoming, is a series of photographic portraits that explore the nuances of genealogical re-embodiment.
Through the process of re-photographing, both artist and subject discovered that the act of mimesis not only served to emphasise familial repetitions, but that the repetition itself was capable of revealing powerful divergences. Throughout this work, the photographic juxtapositions between the original and the restaged, eloquently measure the cultural distance travelled by intergenerational bodies.
Re-animating the family photograph, the series traverses the more traditional lines of culture, genealogy and gender, to uncover new voices in historical narratives. Of being and becoming fosters a dynamic exchange of personal experience with cultural memory, individual identity with collective belonging, and historical fact with personal mythology, that intersects and interplays between photographer, subject and viewer.
Kickstart our month-long festival of the arts with music, photography, and community on the shores of the dazzling Bondi Beach. Be the first to know who won the 2024 Head On Photo Awards and get a taste of the photographs redefining visual storytelling.
Enthralling. Enchanting. Extraordinary. Discover exceptional photography for free around Sydney during the festival 8 Nov–1 Dec 2024
