A Room

1. Title
A Room
– Private Space and Self-Expression from a Feminist Perspective

2. Background & Overview
This project is inspired by Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, which proposes the idea that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” The “room” represents independence, freedom, creativity, and a space for reflection. In contemporary times, this “room” is not only a physical space but also a private emotional sanctuary for women.

As a Chinese woman living in the Bay Area, I have observed that many East Asian women around me — despite often appearing successful and composed under societal standards — carry a persistent, fragmented pain rooted in patriarchal structures. While they present optimism and confidence in everyday interactions, their deeper vulnerabilities and breakdowns often emerge during intimate conversations.

The room, then, is a place entirely their own — where they face themselves. In these spaces, I see them in a fuller sense: vulnerable yet resilient, tender yet resistant. I want to photograph them in their rooms — perhaps weary, perhaps defiant — in the most genuine state of being.

This project aims to explore and document how these women inhabit their rooms, capturing the symbolic meanings of privacy, emotional expression, and identity through a feminist lens. Referencing works such as Tracey Emin’s My Bed, which reveals emotional trauma through personal items and space, this project will use photography to portray East Asian women’s lived experiences in their personal environments — both as literal rooms and as metaphors.

3. Objectives

• To document the personal moments of East Asian women living under patriarchal pressures, revealing a subtle, enduring sense of pain that persists even amid societal success, independence, and dignity.

• To portray each woman’s truest state in her own room — her emotional coexistence with, resistance to, or reconciliation with that long-term pressure.

• To explore the room as an emotional container, a psychic refuge, and a projection of identity through each participant’s space, posture, expression, and personal belongings.

• To help viewers understand that this pain is not individual or isolated, but rooted in systemic cultural structures — while also recognizing the strength, complexity, and resilience women embody in the face of it.

• To respect each subject’s agency and give them control over how they are seen. The images will serve as a medium for self-representation and storytelling.

• To encourage viewers to reflect on the multifaceted meaning of the “room” — both as a private sanctuary and a site of social role projection for women.

• To offer East Asian women a platform to be seen and heard, allowing their stories to speak through visual media.

4. Theme & Narrative
Using the “room” as the central thread, this project explores the intersection of feminism and private space by photographing East Asian women in the Bay Area within their bedrooms.

The focus of the photographs will be the person, with the room as the backdrop. These rooms are not merely living quarters, but reflections of personality and internal worlds. The project will adopt a documentary, film-based approach with relatively fixed compositions, inspired by the visual language of photographer Luo Yang. It will emphasize the presence of the subject in her space in a subtle yet direct manner.

The narrative style is open and fragmented. Each participant will choose how she wishes to appear in her room — her pose, her corner, her objects. Some may face the camera, some may turn away. Some may present chaos, others, order. The arrangement, lighting, and items in each room all contribute to the storytelling.

As the photographer, I will respect each woman’s autonomy — including whether or not to show her face — and adjust the presentation according to her preferences and story. The project highlights the right to control “how one is seen.”

Each set of images serves as both portrait and a meditation on the meaning of the “room” — intimate yet social, specific yet symbolic. Through these rooms, viewers will witness the diversity, vulnerability, and strength of East Asian women, and be prompted to consider themes of home, gendered space, and identity.

5. Presentation Format
The final work may include:

• Photographic works (at least one per participant, possibly 1–3 selected)

• Video works (to be reviewed by the participant before release)

• Textual components (which may include written summaries, dialogue excerpts, or contextual supplements)

6. About the Interview Process
Interviews may be conducted during the shoot. I’ve invited my friend Xiaoqing Wang, a former journalist, to co-lead this part of the project. Interviews will explore aspects of the participant’s life story, with complete freedom for them to choose what they wish to share or withhold. These sessions may be audio or video recorded, strictly for internal reference and creative use. We will always respect any concerns and adjust accordingly.

7. Use of the Work
The completed works may be submitted to:

• Photography exhibitions, awards, or artist funding programs

• Any future commercial or publishing use will require your renewed written consent.

8. Shooting Process
Once you confirm your willingness to participate, we will arrange a preliminary meeting for introductions and understanding.
After confirming intent and preferences, we’ll schedule the shoot.
All content will be created with your full awareness and consent.