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 The Yuppie Project (17) |
 The Hispanic Project (1) |
NIKKI LEE |
 The Lesbian Project (1) |
 The Punk Project (8) |
Nikki Lee is a Korean-born artist who moved to New York City in 1994 to pursue a career in fashion photography. The art photography she has done since the mid-1990s has been referred to as “trans-life style art” by one writer. Lee’s photographs are of herself in the guises she assumes as she infiltrates and adopts the lifestyles of different types of people.
Lee is essentially a performance artist who is more interested in appearing in her pictures than in making them. The photographic series she makes are images of her, taking on the appearance and manners of a particular cultural scene, ethnic group, or sexual identity. In the case of these four photographs: lesbians, punks, yuppies, and Hispanics. Lee is a keen observer of codes of dress and behavior with an uncanny ability to capture states of mind and demeanors. After selecting and studying a group, Lee enters the group and assumes that lifestyle for days or even months at a time. In each case, she has herself photographed with a snap shot camera on the spot, by a friend, one of her “new friends”, or by a passing stranger. Lee’s work is decidedly funny, telling, and poignant. Lee acts as an outsider who brings us “inside” worlds that we might otherwise never know. In other cases, she forces us to re-examine the worlds in which we live.
- Jennifer Bayles, Educator for Special Projects