Where do we go from here?
is an introduction to what it is to be Japanese; from the inside—the traditions, attitudes, endurance, gestures, and history and, from the outside, a Macro-Japan—its politics, its economy, its culture. Wei Leng Tay’s engaging and provocative series investigates how these different conditions create expectations and contradictions within her subjects’ lives, and how that coalesces with more modern and practical needs.
The work, which consists of two sets of photographs, individual studio portraits and then the families captured in their domestic spaces, explores the lives of 22 female residents of Fukuoka, Japan, the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu.
The studio sessions offered Tay an introduction to her subjects, away from their environments and their comfort zones. It would be in their homes, however, that Tay would witness the women’s relationships, priorities, and the lives they actually lived.
The images attest to the pervasiveness of the controlled demeanor she experienced even within the home, a private and personal space and—ostensibly—a sanctuary from the society’s strictures.
