Date: May 17 2024, 1:45 PM

Location: CVU BATANA

exhibition of the Rovinj Photodays 2023 Grand Prix winner

Curator: Sabina Salamon

In her practice, Sarah Mei Herman examines the relationships and intimacy between people, what brings them together or sets them apart, and how physical proximity to others is a human necessity. A recurring theme in her works is young adults. Herman captures adolescence and the fleeting beauty of the continual changes they are going through.
Sarah Mei Herman’s work has been shown internationally, among others at The National Portrait Gallery in London, Le Chateau d’Eau in Toulouse, Benaki Museum in Athens, Musée d’Art Moderne in Liege, JIMEI X ARLES International Photofestival in Xiamen and at Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne. Her work has been included in several art collections such as Rabobank Art Collection, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and AMC Art Collection. She was a finalist for Hyères Festival of Fashion and Photography 2018 where she received the American Vintage Photography Prize 2018. That same year she also won the Rabobank Dutch National Portrait Prize.

Solace

In 2019, Emerson & Wajdowicz Studios in New York commissioned me to produce an extensive photography project about the Chinese LGBTQ community, as part of a book series called Diverse Humanity. I traveled to Xiamen portraying young queer couples and singles. Apart from the photographs I took of these subjects and their personal surroundings, I also interviewed them about their life, love and also, their personal fears. Because of the pandemic I haven’t been able to return to Xiamen. This is why I continued the project in the Netherlands, France and Germany photographing young Chinese people from the LGBTQ community here.

The book was published by The New Press in New York.