Sarah Mei Herman
TOUCH
Started in 2014, during a four-month artist residency in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen, Touch is a series that portrays something universally recognisable: the meaning of friendship and love, in all its intensity and vulnerability. The project emerged from observing the streets of Xiamen or the university campus, and photographing several young adults – primarily women – and their intimate relationships.
Many of the young women were in queer relationships. While homosexuality is no longer prohibited by law in China, it remains a taboo across society, particularly amongst older generations. Many people photographed in the series have not been able to speak openly with their parents about their sexual identities and preferences, but each one was willing to share so much of their private world.
Herman has returned to Xiamen several times since 2014, and tries to photograph the same women on each visit – capturing the tenderness they share, and the things that have changed or remained over time.
With each photographic session, external pressures fade away for a moment, and the bonds between photographer and subject are further strengthened.
“I feel privileged that each one was willing to share so much of their private world with me.”
“We spoke (and still speak) very openly and shared universal feelings about love, our dreams and fears.”
“I think that love between people is the most beautiful thing there is. At the same time love relationships are very fragile. Forbidden love relationships even more so.”
“Not being free – about who you love or want to be – is unimaginable to me. I remain intuited by these strong young women, and I think it’s important to give them a voice through my work.”
Sarah Mei Herman is a photographer based in the Netherlands. Throughout her practice, Herman explores relationships, loneliness, longing, intimacy and the human urge for physical proximity. Probing gently at the things that bridge and divide her subjects, her projects pay close attention to the vulnerability of transitory life stages – from the trials and fleeting beauty of adolescence to the gray areas between friendship and romance.
@sarahmeiherman
originally published in print in the love issue #9, Summer 2024