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1. Daddy and I at Adopted The Movie on 22 Aug 2007 at 3:05 pm

   […] Harlow’s Monkey and Racialicious have recently posted about Daddy and I, a photo exhibit by O. Zhang. In it, adopted Chinese girls […]

2. Popular Heresy on 22 Aug 2007 at 3:25 pm

   […] exploiting young Asian girls (what a tragic norm), but the instinctive reaction many people at the racialicious discussion was that there was something perverse about the posturing, some felt to the extent of […]

3. Daddy and I | OYNAG on 23 Aug 2007 at 9:19 am

   […] Uh, I don’t know. There’s something creepy about the Daddy and I photo series. Discussion here and here. […]

4. Body Impolitic - Blog Archive - » Daddy and I: White Fathers, Asian Daughters - Laurie Toby Edison: Photographer on 25 Aug 2007 at 1:04 am

   […] to Racialicious for the […]

Comments

1. Brittany wrote:

   Some of the pictures are cute and display affection in a father daughter manner. Some of the pictures however, are a bit disturbing. One of the pictures shows the girls in dresses that have slits up the leg and one daughter has her hand on her dad’s thigh and the dad has his had near the other daughter’s butt. Some of the pictures come across as very provactive and inappropriate. I would never take a picture like that with my dad. I thought it was very akward.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 8:11 am ¶

2. Andrea wrote:

   I got a ‘pedo’ vibe from these photos. If I were just looking at the photos without any knowledge that they were fathers and daughters, I would’ve thought that they were subtly advocating the child sex trade. It immediately calls to mind the role that White men have in going over to East Asian countries and fucking the little girls for pay. Why are nearly all of the girls’ hands in such close proximity to their fathers’ crotches? It’s all trés creepy, especially in this picture…why are they sitting on bed with disheveled sheets? That alone forces my mind to go to a place that I’d rather it not.

   Furthermore, why in this series is ‘Western’ synonymous with ‘White’? I’m sure that there are Chinese-born girls transracially adopted into non-White, Western families. It smacks of White worship that I have witnessed a lot by groups of minorities. I respect the artist’s right to do whatever he or she wants to creatively…but I’m gonna say that this:

   Was the artist trying to be provocative by also using a medium that would so easily be interpreted as inappropriate?

   is definitely the feeling I get, that O. Zhang uses this imagery for provocation rather than for the reasons he/she explained in the artists’ statement.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 8:15 am ¶

3. EvilAngelfish wrote:

   I agree with comment number #1 - a couple of the photos do seem to convey a sense of father-daughter affection (like this one) but most of them do seem sheisty. I think it’s the way that the photographer had the father-daughter pairs pose. In most of the shots, there isn’t a “family” vibe. Instead, they remind me of those NAMBLA pictures - definitely an undercurrent of pedophilia.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 8:59 am ¶

4. Anonymous wrote:

   I think a problem here is that many people in Western culture, because of the media among other causes, automatically associate the image of Asian females, whatever age, with white men as sexual in nature. I won’t be able to explain it very well but I don’t think I’m too off on this respect.

   While O. Zheng has stated what the collection of photos is for, the “provocative” photos force the viewer to decide how THEY percieve the nature of the collection to be. It forces the viewer to consider WHY they might feel uncomfortable with seeing these images. For many people, its because of the slit-dress or the odd poses. For others, part of the reason why the pictures look “wrong” is because of the constant sexual objectification of Asian females in relation to white males. In other words, seeing any Asian female and white male together brings out the white-pedo/Asian sex slave/”me-love-you-long-time” alarm in some of you, no matter what the relationship actually IS.

   Deep down, I think a lot of Americans have this problem.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 9:00 am ¶

5. tstorm wrote:

   But in the artist’s statement, he states, “as the girls grow up, will they remain innocent adooptees under the tutelage of their western patriarchs? Or will their progression to maturity disturb the relationship’s equilibrium.” So I think one could argue that O. Zhang is using the imagery quite effectively for the “reasons he explained in the artist’s statement.” The photos definitely beg questions of power dynamics, which, I think, was the objective.

   However, I fully agree that the photos also beg questions of sexual power dynamics, which, given the fact that we’re dealing with father-daughter relationships is quite disturbing.

   This is the one I find most disturbing.

   Part of me also feels pity for the subjects of the photos, who don’t seem to have the slighest awareness that they’re doing anything more than posing with their daughter/father. And that begs questions of exploitation. Is the artist exploiting the subjects, and does such exploitation make us question how whites/westerners/patriarchs exploit others?

   For me, this project provokes thought and disgust in equal measure.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 9:17 am ¶

6. tstorm wrote:

   Edit: I’m calling the artist “he.” I think I’m wrong.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 9:23 am ¶

7. justin wrote:

   I think that the work is great. I don’t there is anything explicit going on in the pictures, though the peripheral issues that are evoked in the minds of the audience are inherit to the artists concept ;). This person is using a standard strategy of contemporary art and probably cares about the ideas involved in the same way that readers of this blog do. IMO, most people who go to galleries are apathetic, so when an artist does something like this there is generally something personal they‘re dealing with. Every Artist is a martyr.
   If the fathers and daughters involved don’t understand the bigger issue’s one day they will, because that’s just the way things are. They should have something much greater to centre themselves with in their relationship or they could go live a dolls house or some kind of bell jar that would render them colour blind for the rest of their lives.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 9:38 am ¶

8. David Wynn wrote:

   Is it just me or does nobody look….. comfortable… in these pictures?

   I mean, I’m not an art critic at all, but the strongest vibe I get from these pictures is just a feeling of…. well I guess I can’t put my finger on it. To me, the whole series just seems kind of forced and faked, and those aren’t things I associate with family in any respect.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 9:51 am ¶

9. Kenny wrote:

   If these same photos were taken of little White girls with men of color I don’t think they would even be published.No matter what the relationship was.

   Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 10:14 am ¶

10. justin wrote:

    Yeah, maybe they are fake. We can’t take for granted the underlying reality of a loving family. Maybe she plagiarized a whole bunch of Jacob and Dinos Chapman sculptures that no one’s ever seen.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 10:20 am ¶

11. Guerita wrote:

    was Woody Allen the influence of O. Zheng ? Anyway were pictures a meant to be controversial? And what leads to my minds would it be any different if the children were white? Or if they were black or Hispanic? I agree that the picture do looked forced and both parties look uncomfortable. If she was trying to capture “the affection between a female child and an adult male” then she did a poor job if she was trying to disturbing or controversial.(I know a lot of artists do that on propose then she did a good job.)

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 10:23 am ¶

12. Lloyd Webber wrote:

    There’s something vaguely skeevy about some of the photos.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 10:52 am ¶

13. Mireille wrote:

    Oh…Wow.
    Some of these pictures look like normal family portraits, but others walk the line of creepiness and cross it.
    I think what gets me is the body language. Coming from a very affectionate family, I understand that little girls like to cuddle with daddy. There are many pictures of me doing it but none of them look particularly…sultry. Nor was I ever in any sort of native costume. I think this kind of contrast serves, at least in these photos, to make the little girl seem like not “really” a member of the family, because she clearly comes from somewhere else. I am all for teaching adoptive children about their culture of origin, but I always felt family portraits were to show the love, not alienation.
    I wish I had a scanner so I could show some pictures of myself, an asian girl, and my father, a white man who adopted me to contrast these. I wonder if they would be interpreted the same way as these.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 11:05 am ¶

14. gandalf mantooth wrote:

    Though “inapppropriate” is generally poor word choice when dealing with any artistic endeavor, there is a certain lurking creepiness in the photos, as if a promo for NBC’s “Dateline.” That we feel unease about the pictures is certainly part of the equation. She chose fathers and daughters for a particular reason, right? Ask yourselves, why not the adoptive moms? The relationships between moms and daughters can be “complex” too, right?

    I would think she’s on to something interesting were it not for reading stuff like “two often divided cultures,” which is the idea at the heart of the most cornball Orientalism. Seems to me that the issues surrounding complexity of the relationships pictured are not “East vs West” but “White vs Asian in the context of growing up in America,” (and issues compounded perhaps when the child is older and wants to consider the culture of her sending country).

    I also agree in part with anonymous’ criticisms of our reactions to this. In some ways many of us in the states have been acculturalated to associate, even if subconsciously, young Asian women and sex, especially if with a White male. Our first reaction seems to be “this is sexual.” We don’t think “this is family.” Yes, it’s a little harder to think about family when the child is a different race than the parent, and certainly more difficult when the child is pictured on some bed or revealing leg. Still, it seems we’ve all absorbed this stereotype.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 11:12 am ¶

15. hoo_boy wrote:

    Two sincere questions:

    (1) Would there ever be (or has there been) a similarly provocative series of White mothers/Asian sons?

    (2) How were these subjects brought to participate and what’s been their reaction?

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 11:23 am ¶

16. hc1 wrote:

    David Wynn, I’m with you 100%. I had the same reaction. I wonder if Zhang encouraged the subjects to adopt postures that were not entirely comfortable or natural for them. I notice the father and daughter at the fountain, who are not really touching, look the happiest, most comfortable and most natural. I almost get the feeling that that dad resisted the artist’s instruction and held firm to the pose he liked. I might be reading way too much into this but that was my gut reaction.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 11:28 am ¶

17. Confessor85 wrote:

    Wow…these photos immediately screamed ‘pedo!’ A lot of it has to do with the poses that even the closest father-daughter relationship would never cross. I have a feeling the photographer asked them into these poses. Not good!

    O btw…I really can’t think of any Asian American girls that rock the Chinese dresses…even the adopted ones. The fathers in suits do remind me of the exploitation in Southeast asia by white business. Something here is not right.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 11:50 am ¶

18. justin wrote:

    I wonder if our reactions would be the same if she took pictures of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 12:00 pm ¶

19. LM wrote:

    I agree that the photos look skeevy and the poses forced. Even the settings and photo composition — gardens, foliage, bedrooms, not a lot of open sky — seem designed to evoke the feelings of stolen moments you see in shots of romantic couples.

    I agree also that this is likely just what O’ Zheng wanted and that her presentation is meant to be a challenge to the viewer.

    To me her statement seems either weak or disingenious because of this phrase: “the emerging feminine power of the adolescent girl to the mature father.” I realize that there’s no fixed definition of “adolescent,” but most of the girls photographed don’t look adolescent to me. The poses she put many of them in, though, would at once be more realistic for adolescent girls but less if said girls were with their fathers.

    In the end, seems creepy to me. But art ain’t easy, I guess.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 12:12 pm ¶

20. LM wrote:

    “O’ Zheng” — editing miscue on my part.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 12:15 pm ¶

21. gandalf mantooth wrote:

    Of course the pictures are posed and fake. These aren’t supposed to be snapshots for the family photo album to show granny. Have to add, the photography is excellent.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 12:30 pm ¶

22. gah wrote:

    regardless of the race of the subjects the poses are skeevy as someone else put them, i never posed with my dad like that

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 12:34 pm ¶

23. Stef wrote:

    In none of these photos are the girls wearing trousers–just little skirts and dresses, little ruffly socks and stuff like that. Some of the girls look too old to be dressing in such a way–where are the jeans, capris and shorts? Do the parents dress these girls like dolls or were they told to have the girls in dresses for the photos?

    The men are usually not smiling, either…I’m getting a creepy vibe.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 12:40 pm ¶

24. Gouw wrote:

    Word, Kenny. My friend is Korean, but married a white woman whose eleven year-old (white) daughter he adopted as his own. One time they were out walking and his wife went to use the bathroom, and he was just sitting there talking with his step-daughter and he was approached by a cop. But his wife came before they could start harassing him thankfully.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 1:33 pm ¶

25. Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:

    I wonder if it’s common for people to get “the wrong idea” when they see white adoptive dads with their Asian daughters.

    I’m not adopted but am mixed. I remember once having lunch with my (white) dad in a restaurant. A business associate of his, a middle-aged white man, came up to us and said, “Oh this must be your lovely wife!”

    Um, I was ten years old at the time. How skeevy is that??? And I know he was serious - it wasn’t some kind of failed joke.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 1:43 pm ¶

26. Shawn wrote:

    Some of the fathers remind me of all the pedo in Thailand. Stuff that passed as art now a day surprises me.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 2:45 pm ¶

27. Karen wrote:

    So what is really the point of these photos?

    Is it to make people think about how they view these relationships or what?

    Whatever it is…it is a bit weird. The photos just look very awkward at times. Not all, just some. The one behind the fountain is one of the only ones that gives off a father/daughter vibe.

    http://web.mac.com/zhang_o/iWeb/Site/Daddy%20&%20I%20_files/Daddy%20%26%20I-23text.jpg

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 3:18 pm ¶

28. Brad wrote:

    Ok every picture except for one gave me the creeps. Don’t really see the point of this other than just to creep people out.

    I remember once having lunch with my (white) dad in a restaurant. A business associate of his, a middle-aged white man, came up to us and said, “Oh this must be your lovely wife!”

    Carmen tell me you’re father blew a gasket with this obvisously idiotic person.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 4:24 pm ¶

29. gandalf mantooth wrote:

    CVK

    as you should know from reading things on the Internet, all Asian women look 10 years old. It’s true! I heard it from a friend of a friend’s uncle who was stationed in Guam for three weeks and blogged about it!

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 4:26 pm ¶

30. MattE wrote:

    The photo’s are provocative, to say the least. Like many others, I am appreciative of the beauty of the photographs and creeped out by the imagery. (I’m suddenly reminded of David Lynch.)

    The artist asks whether the father-daughter relationship will change as the daughter matures. I imagine that is true in most relationships between parents and their children, and that parents must sort out all kinds of emotional responses to their children’s emerging sexuality.

    I guess that I am most creeped out by the way in which the artist exploited the daughters and fathers around this issue. The girls are both sexualized and exoticized in these photos. I think that is what is most creepy to me. The cultural meme of asian child prostitution has purposefully been constructed using unsuspecting people.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 4:35 pm ¶

31. Brian wrote:

    What do you all of think of these photos?

    I think that if you go looking for inappropriate imagery then you may by-golly find it.

    Why are nearly all of the girls’ hands in such close proximity to their fathers’ crotches? I

    Because they’re all about that height? Naw, I kid.

    These are not causal snaps but posed bits of art. If their hands are in places that bother you .. well it’s not an accident.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 8:04 pm ¶

32. Bruce Banner wrote:

    Those pictures were weird. Why would someone take photos like that? Why not have the mother and father together in the picture?
    It makes more sense to me. Those pictures look like pedophilia. Some of the fathers have their hands in the wrong places, like on the little girls butts/thighs. One man has his hand in the girl’s crotch area! The photographer is trying to be controversial to get attention. It reminds me of the photos of “Sally Mann”. She did nudes of her own children before puberty.

    O Zhang does know how to use a camera.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 9:48 pm ¶

33. georgia wrote:

    I think its unfortunate that many people will see these pictures and be put off by them. Our media has made affection between an adult man and a female or male child into a perversion.

    Fathers and grandfathers love their children/grandchildren and show the appropriate affection.

    I have many photos of my family at European beaches when I was a child that Americans might find odd because I am usually only wearing bottoms and my baby brother is often nude. And in many photos we are lying together on sun chairs just lounging around.

    Its sad that we are so suspicious of men being attracted to children as though they are all closet child molesters. And that Asian girls are seen as having a higher potential of being molested or attractive to adult men.

    Posted 22 Aug 2007 at 10:55 pm ¶

34. Kadin2048 wrote:

    I’m unimpressed. As a commentary on colonialism or power dynamics, the photos are heavy-handed and exploitative (and not in a good way — I don’t mean that they explore exploitation, the photos *are* exploitative; i.e. the photographer exploiting the subjects).

    I found myself wondering a lot more about the power dynamic between the photographer and the “subjects” than between the purported fathers and daughters; wondering how many times he’d had to ask them to put their hands just so, in order to get that borderline-pedo vibe that s/he seems to be shooting for. And that’s really not an effective way to explore father/daughter relationships, when the only thing I, as a viewer, can think about is “gee, I wonder how many shots he had to take before he got *that* one…”

    Overall? Heavyhanded and sophomoric.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 12:44 am ¶

35. Lee wrote:

    More criminalisation of men, fathers and typical families.

    Now fathers with daughters evoke ‘paedo’ vibes in people.

    Just like that Virginia ad campaign showing a man holding a childs hand.

    “I just don’t feel right when I see them together.”

    Soon fathers will have to PROVE they are the father of a child, or they will be presumed guilty.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 3:13 am ¶

36. Michelle wrote:

    I think that men showing love ,or god-forbid affection, for a child are pictures that we as a culture need to insert back to our images of things that are good and right and beautiful.

    That said, I get that the artist is trying to push the envelope, but why? You put a middle aged white man in a not so great suit next to a little dolled up Asian girl in traditional Asian dress in the middle of a bed and then you say the viewer has problems with White men and Asian women? That is a manipulation. If the purpose of your art is to manipulate, great. I just feel like the artist places all the blame on the part of the audience for seeing what the artist wants us to see.

    I would have the same reaction to the photos if the Asian girls were swapped with little Russian girls, all dolled up in their traditional Russian dresses. It would have screamed “Child Bride”.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 8:11 am ¶

37. Michelle wrote:

    Just to clarify….

    The pic with the girl in the bed is not wearing “traditional Asian clothing”. I realize that, but I was making a bigger point about the artist’s mindset.

    p.s. Not to be unscholarly, but could part of the problem be that the men look a little, well, shady? And I am sure they are perfectly nice, but they look a little pervy, no?

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 8:13 am ¶

38. Msjulala wrote:

    Maybe in part to my own biases, but these pictures just look plain weird. The little girls look like replacement brides. The poses are awkward and eerily similar from photo to photo. Most of the fathers look extremely uncomfortable. The poses do not look natural, they look more “couple” and less “father and daughter” in the one photo it looks like the dad is holding the little girl’s stomach as someone would if they were showcasing their wife’s pregnant belly….Perhaps the fathers just felt uncomfortable being photographed because on one hand they’d liked to believe that their adoption choice was a regular, everyday decision, but then they are being asked to showcase some presumed mystifying exoticism surrounding their adoption choice (I hope this statement makes sense-LOL)

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 9:02 am ¶

39. byrdparker wrote:

    The photos , seem to be trying to expose pedophillia … Think about it the artist is chinese maybe he is against these adoptions ( not neccessarily of the people in the photos ) . Perhaps he used them / and they did not know until to late .. He is obviously trying to provoke this thought of pedophillia …. Also pedophilla is rapant in foreign countries , and a lot more people / people with means are involved .. I am glad he took these photos it makes people think … To whoever wrote this post , think of yourself lucky to have gotten adopted by upstanding people , and don’t think of these photos as a reflection of your life .

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 11:44 am ¶

40. byrdparker wrote:

    ^^^^
    also i would like to add that after the tsunami , pedophiles were flocking to those countries hardest hit , with many orphans , trying to adopt the children, remember !!!

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 11:46 am ¶

41. jae ran wrote:

    As the person who wrote the original post, I actually disparage the idea of being told to consider myself “lucky” and futhermore, I do not think of these photos as a reflection of my life.

    That being said, I get the gist of what you’re saying.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 12:09 pm ¶

42. Fiqah wrote:

    Euw! Sexualized babies and leering dads. And what is up with the dresses, man? If we’re making the “culturally-relevant clothing” argument, shouldn’t some of the fathers be wearing like, powdered wigs and waistcoats or something? SKEEVE-O-RAMA.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 12:20 pm ¶

43. Brian wrote:

    also i would like to add that after the tsunami , pedophiles were flocking to those countries hardest hit , with many orphans , trying to adopt the children, remember !!!

    Evidence? That reads like the wild accusations flying around fifteen years ago about pedophiles running daycare centers. Everyone ‘knew’ kids were being abused right and left - it was a plague upon the land!

    Except … not so much.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 12:51 pm ¶

44. cw wrote:

    I would imagine some fathers refused to participate after seeing what kind of pictures the photog wanted.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 2:00 pm ¶

45. yohan wrote:

    These pictures were done by a professional photographer (woman or man does not matter in this case) and these positions in these pictures are intentional. These are not family pictures.

    I doubt, if these are really white fathers and their Asian (? I see only Chinese) adopted daughters. More likely these pictures were taken with some US-models - or with some of her American friends (Chinese and whites) and their children, all related to art business.

    These pictures are a great fake and premium art, some American feminists will calling them ‘pedo’ and ‘poor Asian girls misused by whiteUS- men’ and are thinking there is a true relation between the man and the girl on the picture…

    This artist got attention and discussion are going on with these pictures, which means, she did a good job and is earning money.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 8:04 pm ¶

46. Jae Ran wrote:

    I just want to clarify that these are real white fathers with their adopted Chinese daughters. They are not models and they are not “fake” art.

    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 11:35 pm ¶

47. byrdparker wrote:

    Jae Ran
    have you seen the other art coming out of china it is pretty” radical “to put it mildly . I do business in china for quite some time ( i am a woman ) it’s another world , and when they want to speak out through thier art , they really want to push buttons .

    I am sorry you took the comment of “conisdering yourself lucky ” as though it was at the expense of another human being , that is not what I meant . I was refferring to spirituality , and giving thanks for what we have , because only then can we move forward and truly help others.

    after going to Zhang O’s website and reading her take on her own work … I did not get her phillosophy from just looking at the photos , but once I read her oppinion , I can see where she is coming from although I must wonder sub conciously what the real motive was !

    Great thought provoking post Jae Ran and sorry if I offended you in any way that was not my intention !

    Posted 24 Aug 2007 at 8:23 am ¶

48. Yohan wrote:

    Jae Ran: I just want to clarify that these are real white fathers with their adopted Chinese daughters. They are not models and they are not “fake” art.
    Posted 23 Aug 2007 at 11:35 pm ¶

    Posted 24 Aug 2007 at 12:04 pm ¶

49. Yohan wrote:

    May I ask, how do you know that?

    For sure these pictures in that positions were taken intentionally with the consent of the ‘fathers’ and they should get some pay for posing as models, as these art-pictures are copyright protected, they are for publishing and for earning money.

    Even if these are real fathers and their adopted daughters, these pictures are not in relation to their daily family life.

    Posted 24 Aug 2007 at 12:13 pm ¶

50. squidfly wrote:

    Art is subjective; you see what you want to see.

    Posted 24 Aug 2007 at 2:36 pm ¶

51. Rain wrote:

    1) I know it’s not politically correct to say this, but no way is that “art”. It’s kiddie porn all the way. and yes, most of the guys look downright lecherous. I even got the creeps from some of the pictures that people mentioned above as “not so bad” . . . I could barely make mysel look at them all.

    2) I was able to confirm that the photographer is indeed female. The dime-store Freudian in me is convinced that “something” must have happened to her . . .

    3) you guys all make me homesick with the word “skeevy” . . . I grew up in Staten Island and nobody here in the Midwest knows that word. But I always spelled it “scievy” . . .

    Posted 24 Aug 2007 at 8:27 pm ¶

52. Jae Ran wrote:

    Yohan, there are several people that I know received the call for participation from the artist in the New York area. They specifically targeted families from different groups of families with children from China. At least one of the parents who was on the list serve where the call was posted says it (the call for participants) was misleading.

    And I agree that these are not meant to depict “family life.” And I have no doubt that the fathers consented and were likely compensated for their participation.

    Posted 25 Aug 2007 at 12:34 am ¶

53. deb wrote:

    If these same photos were taken of little White girls with men of color I don’t think they would even be published.

    The adoption process would not have gotten THAT far. Trust.

    The photographer could have chosen another filial dynamic, e.g. white lesbians and their adopted Asian daughter(s), or a white married couple and their Asian daughter(s); but, that she chose the families she did suggests to me that she knew the pictures would be provocative.

    I just can’t help but wonder, “Where’s Chris Hansen when you need him?”

    Posted 25 Aug 2007 at 2:04 pm ¶

54. Christina wrote:

    It’s strange –when I first started looking at the pictures, I, too, felt a profound sense of creepiness. It just all looked so very wrong. But the more I examine them, the more at ease I feel with the images. I wonder if that’s because it is fully sinking into my head that these are NOT men with prostitutes, but fathers with their daughters. I’m not sure. But I do know that the photographer’s intent must have been for us to go to a dark place…the poses are too carefully chosen for it to be otherwise. If the intent was merely to show Daddy with his kid (and it wasn’t - the artist’s statement makes that clear) then there are a million other poses that could have been chosen.

    Posted 25 Aug 2007 at 2:27 pm ¶

55. crella wrote:

    I live in Japan, and my first reaction was not one of disgust at white men and Asian little girls. It was made quite clear that it was father-daughter pairings, the girls are completely dressed (over-dressed, evidently, in some people’s opinions). God knows I see enough western men here with their children, who often take after their mothers.

    As the artist picked the poses, I am intrigued at the reactions to the men in the photos, the ‘creeped out’ and ‘pedo’ comments. If anyone should be criticized, if one is to criticize art, it should be the artist. ‘What kind of agenda does this woman have?’ , not ‘I’m getting major pedo vibes’…

    I think the reactions to these photos speak more for the cultural biases and preconceptions of viewers in the west than it does anything else…

    Posted 26 Aug 2007 at 3:02 am ¶

56. Ainur wrote:

    crella, I agree with your comments concerning the artist’s aims. My first reaction was actually, “oh my goodness, these photos are so tacky, the colours are over-saturated and the subjects pose like dolls” - the photos reminded me more of glossy restaurant guides than personal portraits. Of course, then it slowly dawned on me that this was the intention all along. We are not being presented full-fleshed individuals in these photos - what we see is the world through the eyes of prejudice, and it is nauseating, because:

    We have been there before.
    Looking at people exactly like this camera lense, with prejudice, self-righteousness or objectification.
    It’s not a nice thing to notice, but it’s a step towards betterment…

    Another question is if it is okay that the artist reinforces the old stereotype by making new pictures which display it. I don’t think we can get rid of the prejudices by pretending they don’t exist, but the positive images deserve attention, too. Unfortunately, there are many people who need to see this sort of almost-offensive material in order to grow aware of their own preconceived ideas about gender and race. I should know, some of them are my friends and relatives…

    Posted 26 Aug 2007 at 1:19 pm ¶

57. scott wrote:

    Someone sent me these and told me that she thought my work reminded her of this work. I had a quick look and thought it more than a little discomforting. The poses are odd, and (despite comments I’ve read here) the photography is slightly more than passable.
    My child is of mixed race (neither of us is Asian) and I don’t forsee us in poses that look like these. Ever.

    Posted 26 Aug 2007 at 1:58 pm ¶

58. Deb wrote:

    These photos had a big ‘yuck’ factor for me-for reasons that others have cited. But I have to give the photographer credit for making me think about why they made me uncomfortable.

    We are talking about these images because they force us to look at our own biases and stereotypes-whether we want to or not.

    Thinking is the first step in any attempt to eliminate biases etc. Even if we, as adults are too married to our own view of the world, we can make the choice to stop the bias bandwagon with us. We can make a conscious choice not to pass on our biases to our children like we do our grandmother’s silverware.

    So two thumbs up for making me think-even if i didn’t like the way the message was delivered.

    with respect;
    deb

    Posted 27 Aug 2007 at 9:23 am ¶

59. Rj wrote:

    In the first picture, the girl reads as a bored kid who’d rather be out kicking a ball around instead of being in a dress and in the picture. They seem pretty normal to me.

    The second picture is freakish to me, and really, really wrong, as is all racial fetishizing of one’s minor daughter. The whole thing reads “Welcome to the Orient, Mr. Bond.”

    Posted 28 Aug 2007 at 1:26 pm ¶

60. yohan wrote:

    It seems the artist changed some pictures on her webpage.

    Some pictures are different ones and are not the same I have seen last week.

    For example, the picture with the white man and the Chinese girl sitting on the bed was removed.

    Posted 28 Aug 2007 at 9:13 pm ¶

61. Cathy wrote:

    I don’t like the pictures. I’m a Chiense woman who married an American man. but I still think these two are really inappropriate.

    Posted 22 May 2008 at 4:29 pm ¶

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