enchantedlivingmagazine: https://enchantedlivingmagazine.com/acr819722876108819096630/
As an ethnic minority born, raised and living in Britain, sometimes it can be challenging to find representation. Growing up, I saw few heroines, leaders and role models in the media that looked like me. Yet, with the power of photography, I can reinvent how I see myself. Instead of blending out of view as a perpetual wallflower, I now reclaim my voice by creating imagery that channels the doomed and powerful alike. I created these during the pandemic, when I felt diminished given the prejudice experienced by East and Southeast Asians in light of COVID-19 fuelled hate. By taking the myths and legends, as well as the fairytales and folklore of the country in which I was born, I fuse it with my image and challenge my own eye to believe what I could not grasp as a youth: that I can create my own stories and be my own main character. The series features self-portraits which help me confront my place in the UK and identity as a Chinese diaspora: I am forced to claim an agency all my own as a creator. I have taken control of my image and given myself up completely to the world of reinvention.