© National Portrait Gallery 2025
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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 Finalist
Meng-Yu Yan
born Australia 1992
Another ruin I 2023
pigment photographic print on paper
‘What is the place of photography in a world over-saturated with images? Instead of creating, I wanted to destroy my images, to delete everything on my camera roll. Inspired by queer photographer Jimmy DeSana, I turned to my photographs with a knife and began to cut into them. Queer representation and identity politics has become tokenising and flat. I wanted to rip into the surface of the image to reach something deeper. Photography as a medium can sometimes feel distant and removed, but here, cutting into the surface of my own image became hands-on and personal.’
Meng-Yu Yan 颜梦钰 is a queer, non-binary, Australian/Chinese artist based on Wallumedegal Land in Sydney, best known for their creation of mystical dreamscapes and haunting self portraits.
The National Photographic Portrait Prize 2024 celebrates established and emerging artistic talent from across the country.
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