Ciao! Your name?
Sophie Tianxin Chen.

How old are you?
I’m 26.

Where are your from?
I am originally from China, but I have lived in a few different countries. Now I live and work in Los Angeles.

What is photography?
I can’t really answer the question, it is not something that I really think about. I know I am interested in images, not just photographs. An image for me is often a scene I witness or something formed in my mind. I give most of my attention to the image itself, the discourse around photography as a medium tends to bore me a little.

What is I, Etcetera about?
These images were made at the end of a long journey of becoming an American citizen. Spending so much time intentionally building a new identity was very strange and confusing, and it made me bitter. It’s really hard to tell you what I, Etcetera is about. The work was more of a reaction, from this space where I felt deformed by being squeezed and pulled by two opposing poles. I think it is about asking the audience to keep an open mind in order to effectively experience a narrative with seemingly aloof meaning. The work is easier to understand with tender empathy than formal logic.

Where can you be found online?
This is my site.