Arousing senses of fatherhood

04 December 2017   •  
Written by Molly Sisson
Arousing senses of fatherhood

Tiffany Wang, 23, from Taiwan explores her relationship with her father through photography. She uses this medium to revisit her past and present life by reconstructing a future in her series Frames of My Father. Uncovering a persona through meaningful objects and settings and reinterpreting them through her own art forms, Tiffany uses each photo such as a journal entry.

Frames of My Father

uses photography to share the intimate affair between father and daughter while embracing the boundaries of images, textiles and colours. After growing up with a rocky paternal relationship, the photographer uses her camera as a task of puzzling together the missing pieces. While he would share his past, this would be a step forward to forging a relationship, using her lens to depict her father through a new angle. When spending three weeks in Taiwan with her father, this became the bridge unifying the two family members. This series allows Tiffany Wang to dive into her ancestry, and more specifically herself.

Evidence on paper

This artist weaves personal traits of her father into these photographs. Here, meanings are merged into her photos, creating a double layer of significance and existence. Between the photo itself and the origin of the print, this artwork has a multitude of substance where the ingredients are nostalgia, emotions and memories. Each texture and material has a meaning. For example, the use of fabric? “My Father had been working in a clothes factory for most of his life“, she exclaims. This artist puts unique thought and process into her creations: “I alternate using brown kraft paper, rice paper and muslin. I left the edges rough like those on my fathers bible, or his old stack of photographs“. From collecting a number of objects of her father, the photographer built a relationship, focusing on his red covered bible, calligraphy letter and obsession with incense. These items had a cultural significance, allowing an insight not only into the father-daughter relationship, but also into Taiwan. These culturel and traditional aspects are outlined through the uses of calligraphy and Buddhism. Also green, yellow and reddish tones, common in Taiwan’s culture and once again, overlapping with her fathers interests with earthy and organic colours. Finally, this photographer weaves elements of her fathers life into her own, just like the beloved textiles that run throughout this series.

© Tiffany Wang

© Tiffany Wang© Tiffany Wang
© Tiffany Wang
© Tiffany Wang
© Tiffany Wang
© Tiffany Wang
© Tiffany Wang

© Tiffany Wang

© Tiffany Wang
© Tiffany Wang
© Tiffany Wang

Photos by © Tiffany Wang

Explore
France 98, Luke Skywalker and street photography: Laurent le Crabe's Chinese portrait
France 98, Luke Skywalker and street photography: Laurent le Crabe’s Chinese portrait
"As the son of a printer, I was immersed from an early age in a culture of images and colour", says Laurent le Crabe, who, as he grew up...
28 July 2021   •  
Written by Anaïs Viand
Macron, Brexit and family albums: Ed Alcock's Chinese portrait
Macron, Brexit and family albums: Ed Alcock’s Chinese portrait
Portrait photographer for many news publications – Le Monde, El País, the New York Times – documentary photographer and member of the...
22 July 2021   •  
Written by Lou Tsatsas
"While everyone knows how to draw a penis and testicles, a vulva or a clitoris is a problem"
“While everyone knows how to draw a penis and testicles, a vulva or a clitoris is a problem”
With Récupérer Nos Corps (Getting our bodies back, ed.), a project combining written testimonies and photographs, non-binary artist La...
14 July 2021   •  
Written by Lou Tsatsas
Belgium, pasta taster, and dangerous nipples: Charlotte Abramow's Chinese portrait
Belgium, pasta taster, and dangerous nipples: Charlotte Abramow’s Chinese portrait
She is Belgian, but lives in France. She has been challenging the clichés associated with female beauty and celebrating bodies in her...
11 July 2021   •  
Written by Anaïs Viand
Our latest articles
View all articles
Readers picks #355
Readers picks #355
Alexander Kaller and Stephen Sillifant, our readers picks #355, both escape the frenzy of our world to produce peaceful images – a...
30 August 2021   •  
Written by Fisheye Magazine
British seaside, round animals and Céline Sciamma: Max Miechowski's Chinese portrait
British seaside, round animals and Céline Sciamma: Max Miechowski’s Chinese portrait
Trained as a musician, British artist Max Miechowski turned to photography after a long trip to Southeast Asia. Portraits...
25 August 2021   •  
Written by Lou Tsatsas
Instagram selection #312
Instagram selection #312
Through portraits or landscapes, the artists of our Instagram selection #312 never stop experimenting. All of them seek new textures and...
24 August 2021   •  
Written by Joachim Delestrade
The labourer who turned mud into silver
The labourer who turned mud into silver
With Zilverbeek (Silver creek), Lucas Leffler explores the myth of a worker who made his wealth from the mud that lined the bottom of a...
23 August 2021   •  
Written by Finley Cutts