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" We fight for sincerity, " says Luo Yang, 35, a new icon of photography and counterculture in China. For the first time, an exhibition of her series Girls takes place in France, at Maison Dentsu, a new space in Paris. Her disturbing images strike without warning: young women often naked, always freed, blurring the border between private and public space.
RFI : A pierced nipple, a tattooed belly, a shaved head. Welcome to the universe of Luo Yang, populated by young women both strong and fragile, facing skyscrapers, mountains or just everyday life in China. Since the beginning of your portraits, you are often presented as an icon of counterculture in China. What does counter-culture mean to you ?
Luo Yang : Personally, I never ask myself if my photos are part of the counterculture or not, because most of the people I photographed are my friends or friends of my friends. They are in my life. They are normal people.
How does a photo shoot take place at home ?
As they are often friends, I'm just going home, at home, or somewhere else to have fun or walk around. We talk, we drink, it's the normal life between friends. And when they are relaxed, at that moment, I start to take pictures.
What triggered your Girls series in 2008 ?
When I started with Girls , I was still in university [ she graduated from the prestigious Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts in Shenyang in 2009, Ed ]. I was very young and I got confused often in life. I wanted to express myself my feelings, my emotions. And then, I found a way to do it by taking pictures. It was a good way to express myself.
Ten years after your first photo for Girls , what has changed for young women in China ?
At the beginning of the series, I photographed the generation born in the 1980s. Today is the 1990 generation. Many things have changed. Young women are freer, more independent, they have more confidence in themselves. They like to show themselves. The media has changed the society in China a lot. Today, girls are showing their lives in photos without problem.
In early November, the Pompidou Center opened a branch of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Shanghai and there has been much talk of China's openness to Western contemporary art. For you, is it easy to show your photographs in China and share them on social networks ?
It has become easier to show my work. My first personal exhibition was in 2009, very soon after the start of my Girls series. But nude photos, I can not show them to the public or publish them on social networks.
The BBC has put you on the list of 200 most influential people in the world in 2018. What do you think your influence is ?
[ She thinks ] I think I do not have too much influence. But maybe people think that I and my works have influence. In fact, I do not care too much about the influence I could have. On the other hand, it's nice that people are wondering who I am. After, they are curious to see my photos.
When we talk about the Chinese counterculture, we think about Ai Weiwei - with whom you exposed - and Ren Hang, the young photographer who committed suicide in 2017, at the age of 29, after questioning in his very poetic nude photos the identity and sexuality of young homosexuals in China. Can we say : did he work on the change of the masculine identity and you, at the same time, on the change of the feminine identity in China ?
Ren Han was a friend of mine. (...) We are of the same generation. We photographed and documented the generation of young people born in the 1980s. I am more focused on young women. His work was not just about the man or the woman. He questioned the nude, the younger generation. Both of us tried to liberate ourselves the younger generation in China. We fight for sincerity and culture.
One of the strongest photos of the exhibition shows a woman shaving her head. What is the story behind the image ?
The girl in the picture is a friend of mine. I took the picture two years ago. She had just divorced her husband. She wanted to have her freedom and start a new life. For this, she had her head shaved by her new boyfriend. It's a moment of their new life.
In the Girls exhibition, you have spread small size prints of your new project on a table. What is New Generation about ?
I started this year with New Generation . Most young people were born after 1990. And I also started photographing boys, not just girls. When I compare the two generations, the beginning of Girls and today, I would say that the new generation is more open, more free. They are more likely to be themselves. They like to show themselves, they have more confidence.
As in this picture with two bodies entwined ...
This is a photo of my new series on the younger generation in China. We see a couple. It's still a friend of mine. Both are models. I went to their house to make this picture in their room. It was easy to do. Today, the young Chinese generation likes to show itself. And since they like my photographs, they wanted to pose for me.
► Girls , exhibition at Dentsu House. Admission free, but only by appointment by email: Communication@dentsuaegis.com Address: 176 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris, Saturdays 9, 16, 23 and 30 November 2019, from 10h to 18h.
► See also: Paris Photo exposes censorship in China