For her new book Solace Sarah Mei Herman photographed and interviewed 31 Chinese LGBT youth. She visited some of them in China, where homosexuality is still a big taboo. She spoke to others, out of necessity, in Europe. But here too they have to deal with persistent prejudices and the disapproval of parents and family.
The day before our interview about her new book Solace (‘Consolation’) Sarah Mei Herman, in the crowded London Underground, had another moment where she thought: oh, if only I had a camera with me. All those introverted people. She finds pure beauty that, the moment when people come to a standstill, they are perhaps momentarily oblivious to their surroundings and accidentally let down the mask of indifference or neutrality, of social conventions. The few moments that give the photographer the opportunity to penetrate to the core of her model.
Be yourself unobserved and undisturbed
As a photographer, Herman (42) graduated from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague and The Royal College of Art in London, has always been intrigued by intimacy and love relationships. With her camera looking for the mental and physical state you are in when you are with your loved one, or alone – in your own world, unobserved, undisturbed – being yourself. Finding and capturing that key moment is the gift of the photographer, who recognizes that ‘people quickly feel at ease with me and let me in’. In this way she arrives at what we can call the essence of a being, and allows the shimmer of this to be reflected in her work.
How she did in the People’s Republic of China, in the city of Xiamen, when she was there as artist-in-residence settled for the first time in 2014? Fairly blank, she arrived in the country she had been curious about for a long time and, as before, started looking for people who wanted to model for her. ‘It took a lot of time. I contacted the university campus, where students sometimes speak some English. Often they were women. They opened up more, and besides, I was only allowed access to the dormitories where female students live.’
She also approached people on the street. “I had a note with me asking them to pose for me in Chinese.” It was quite easy for her – the magic of radiance – to gain the trust of the Chinese and to build friendships that last to this day.
Homohealing therapy
It was more or less a coincidence that Herman came into contact with women who had a lesbian relationship three times. Secret relationships, because although homosexuality has been banned under Chinese law for about twenty years, it is far from accepted by the government and by older generations. “It’s a big taboo. Parents push their child to marry traditionally, LGBT people are under enormous pressure. Fake marriages take place. Parents, of course, suspect that their child is not straight, but they don’t want to know, or hope that they will grow out of it. In the worst case, they send their child to what is then called homogeneous healing therapy.’
Herman came back to Xiamen three times to work, resulting in the big project Touch. A series from it was awarded third prize in 2021 at the Silver Camera in the category ‘Documentary International’. And elsewhere, in the United States, her work has not gone unnoticed. She came into contact with a philanthropic institution that finances photo books about LGBTI culture worldwide, which eventually resulted in her being able to make a fifth trip to China. For example, she returned to Xiamen in September 2019 to work, initially for two weeks, on the new project that would result in Solace.
Chinese LGBTI people in Europe
Through the grapevine she searched and found new gay and lesbian models, who were happy to cooperate. Herman: ‘They also find it important that they are seen and that their stories are heard.’ For example, she initially visited fourteen young Chinese in Xiamen who were willing to pose for her. If the models still lived with their parents, less unusual for young adults in China than in the Netherlands, the true nature of the project had to be concealed: ‘At home with twins, both gay, the boys told their mother that I was photographing them for a project about twins. The father, whom they did not speak well of, was working outside the door. They adored their mother, who probably knew about her sons.’
Encouraged by the results of the first two weeks, Herman planned another trip. But corona put a line through it. China went into lockdown, only to reopen to foreigners at the end of 2022. In consultation with the publisher in New York, nervous because of a stagnating schedule, Herman decided to continue working in Europe. She made portraits in the Netherlands, in Germany and of a couple in Paris that she had also photographed in Xiamen just under three years earlier.
Although the Chinese LGBTI people in Europe live in a more tolerant environment on average, they also have a fraught history and are also confronted with the disapproval of parents and family and the recalcitrance of prejudices. The Dutch parents of two adopted Chinese youths are, besides those of a boy who grew up in the Netherlands, the only ones in Solace who know what their child’s orientation is, and who fully embrace their preference.
Intimate and relaxed photos
The photos of 31 young people have thus been collected in Solace: portraits, but sometimes also interior photos of their room or home. Everyone has their say in the book, and talks about his or her life, the obstacles and fears, but also about the joy of their relationship. Herman usually takes one and a half to two hours for her photos. She carefully feels whether someone wants to say something about his or her situation. ‘Sometimes a person feels uncomfortable at first, is reserved or shy. But there always comes a time when someone surrenders.’
It produces unprecedented intimate and relaxed photos, always made with the analogue Mamiya 6×7 cm (medium format) camera. ‘I’m attached to film. You can’t immediately see what the result is like with digital images: that improves concentration, and the model isn’t distracted by curiosity either.’
In Solace Although LGBTI people are the model, those who view the book often tend to forget that aspect. The warmth of the touch, the tenderness of the skin, tenderness of a look, relaxation and surrender, you wish everyone: they transcend gender issues. It’s a shame that the book is not for sale on the Chinese market: a condition that Herman’s models understandably set for their participation. But after two and a half years of cold quarantines, lockdowns, deaths and stress, you would also heartily wish the Chinese this visual comfort.
Sarah May Herman: Solace, Portraits of Queer Chinese Youth; 128 pages; The New Press; €23.99.
Duo exhibition with Tara Fallaux at Caroline O’Breen gallery, Amsterdam, February 18 to April 8.