“All little girls should be told they are pretty, even if they aren’t.”
― Marilyn Monroe
Sexuality, birth, menstruation, and maturity are the topics Taiwanese photographer Yung Cheng Lin, also known as 3cm, captures with his camera. Through surreal and sometimes disturbing photos, he shines a light on the dark aspects of the feminine condition. His aim is not to shock the audience, but rather to make them stop and think. With the power of subtle lighting, he creates a delicate world filled with simple colors and everyday objects.
In his work he pursues novelty and experimentation by always maintaining a tight rein on the composition of the photographs. “The sense of beauty will be taken into account in vision arrangement too,” Yung Cheng Lin explains. In simpler terms, the proper composition allows viewers to think and generate questions in their minds. “They will plunge deep into thought, and then, try to answer them,” he adds.
This photographic series called Rituals, Tag et Différance speaks of the agony and beauty of the feminine condition. It is gripping, compelling, and raw. His obsession with the human body is apparent and the skin serves as a blank canvas where he can embody his deepest artistic visions.
Stereotypes are pervasive in this world and they float about unnoticed by many. In this world, if you are a woman, at least once you will come across the fabled phrase: Beauty hurts. In Memoirs of a Geisha we were enthralled by the transformation of Sayuri into an enigmatic Geisha, and the words of Mameha continue to ring in our ears, “Agony and beauty, for us, live side by side. Your feet will suffer, your fingers will bleed. Even sitting and sleeping will be painful.” Most of us will never go through such drastic transformations, but we empathise with the agony, the pain of hair removal, of wearing a bra, and following strict diet regimes. To all of this, add the pain of menstruation and giving birth. Quite literally we can say, being a woman hurts. However, we have grown so accustomed to these rituals that not very often we stop and think: Why must it hurt?
