Wai Lin Tse
On honouring her roots.
The 8th of March has special meaning for me. It is not only International Women’s day, but it was also my mother’s birthday and, the feminist that she was, we had always celebrated both. Since I was given the opportunity to take this self-portrait, I knew I wanted to honour her memory. It made sense for me to take this portrait in the landscape of Montserrat, where my mother was from. She loved those mountains and revisiting them for this assignment has been a beautiful way for me to reconnect with that part of my upbringing. I also brought along my hiking companion Leia [the dog].
I come from a mixed family. My father is Chinese, and my mother was Catalan, and I grew up between Spain and England. From my mother, I developed a love of nature and values of simplicity and honesty. On the other hand, from my father, I received an environment that nurtured my creativity. I think I show all these traits by choosing to portray myself in an honest, straightforward way, in a place that I grew up in and love.
“It made sense for me to take this portrait in the landscape of Montserrat, where my mother was from.”
In my images, I try to find a certain amount of reality, honesty and simplicity. I am very influenced by documentary photography. I would like for my photography to exist in a place in-between documentary and fashion photography. I don’t usually take many self-portraits, and although the creative process started off being quite similar to my other work, as the idea developed, it became much more personal. I mean, I believe that most of my photography has a part of me in it since it is a result of my creative decisions, but this project made me much more explicit about that relationship.
Wai Lin Tse is a photographer based in Barcelona. Follow her @wailintse
