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This Photographer Transformed Herself for 300 Self-Portraits

Tomoko Sawada challenges viewers to confront their own stereotypes about Asian identities.
Images courtesy of Rose Gallery © Tomoko Sawada

Even in the most diverse cities in the country, stereotypes and clichés about ethnic groups leave little room for individuality. A person can be automatically judged by their perceived ethnic identity— even when that assumption is incorrect. Photographer Tomoko Sawada grapples with an especially complicated ethnic problem: the assignment of Asian identity based on physical features. What makes someone seem more Japanese or more Chinese? What factors make strangers decide on these attributes? These are the questions that Sawada tackles in her exhibition Facial Signature, currently on view at Santa Monica's Rose Gallery.

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The project stems from Sawada’s personal experiences. While living in New York, people often made incorrect guesses as to her ethnic identity. Sawada was born in Kobe, Japan but strangers rarely thought she looked Japanese. "Quite often, when I lived in New York City for six years, I was perceived as being of Chinese or Korean or Singaporean origin… only occasionally Japanese,” Sawada tells The Creators Project. “This made me consider the intuitive process by which people achieve cognition of true or false archetypes. The experience led me to create this new project, transforming myself 300 times to look like a variety of East Asian Women."

Sawada purposefully choose her makeup, hair and clothing in each photo to create subtle changes from one portrait to the next. The artist, however, does not reveal  information about why she made these choices— instead the small differences between the photographs challenge viewers to confront the stereotypes they might have about Asian identities.

Facial Signature is on display at Rose Gallery until April 9, 2016. For more information, click here.

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