I made Through the Lens of Solitude between 2022 and 2023, during a difficult period of my PhD studies in London.
I was spending much of my time alone, and my daily life had gradually become confined to a very small space.
I rarely went out, and for a while, I lost interest in many of the things that had previously been important to me.
I did not begin these photographs with a particular project in mind. I took them occasionally, following whatever caught my attention. Over time, they became a kind of visual diary. Photography was still familiar to me at a point when many other parts of my life felt uncertain. Having a camera with me gave me something to concentrate on and encouraged me to keep looking at my surroundings.
Most of the photographs were made in the courtyard garden of Whitehouse, where I was living at the time. Because I passed through the same garden almost every day, I became familiar with very small changes in it. I photographed flowers facing the sun, plants growing by themselves, and the shapes created when strong sunlight fell across leaves and petals. I was especially drawn to the contrast between bright light and deep shadow. Some of the flowers seemed strangely close to how I felt at the time. I remember noticing those growing alone and turning towards the light. Their persistence stayed with me. They continued to grow quietly, regardless of whether anyone was there to see them. I returned to these details repeatedly, often without consciously thinking about why I was photographing them.
There were also occasional days when I left this small routine behind and went to exhibitions or photography events. Some photographs came from these outings, including a visit to the London Photo Fair. These brief trips gave me a different experience of the city and brought me back into contact with photography beyond my immediate surroundings. The series accumulated slowly. There was no shot list or planned narrative, and I was not thinking about how the photographs might eventually be presented. I simply continued taking pictures whenever something made me stop and look. It was only later, when I returned to the photographs as a group, that I began to understand how closely they were connected to that period of my life.
Photography gave me a reason to notice things during days that could otherwise feel repetitive and enclosed. Changes in sunlight, the growth of a flower, or an unexpected detail in an ordinary place could briefly draw my attention outward. The camera helped me maintain that habit of looking.
When I revisit Through the Lens of Solitude now, the photographs bring back a very specific time. They contain the isolation I experienced, along with the small moments that interrupted it. What began as a collection of photographs made without a clear purpose eventually became a personal record of those two years and of the things I continued to notice while moving through them.
About Han Yang
Han Yang is a London-based visual artist and photographer whose practice explores femininity, the body, queer identity, and the evolving relationships between humans, technology, and the natural world. Drawing on her Chinese heritage, she incorporates Chinese cultural references and metaphors into a visual language that moves between constructed photography, portraiture, and fashion.
Yang received her MA in Fashion Photography with Distinction from the University of the Arts London in 2019. From 2021 to 2024, she pursued a PhD at King’s College London, where her practice-based research examined nonhuman fashion photography through the lens of posthuman theory. This research continues to inform her photographic work, particularly her interest in the boundaries between human and nonhuman forms. Her images bring together queer bodies, cyborg imagery, fungi, plants, and other organic materials.
Working across fine art and fashion photography, Yang often uses the body as a starting point for exploring vulnerability, identity, transformation, and belonging. Projects including Invisible, Fetish Animals, and her ongoing work with queer communities approach these subjects through different forms of portraiture and staged image-making. Her recent work continues to explore fluidity, rebirth, and bodily transformation, while analogue photography and darkroom processes remain important aspects of her practice.
Yang’s work has received recognition through international awards, exhibitions, and publications. She was awarded First Prize in Photography at the Women in Art Prize 2024 for Vulnerability and won the Single Photographs category of the FotoSlovo Award 2024. Her work has been exhibited at Photo London and Christie’s London and presented in exhibitions and photography festivals across the UK, Europe, and China. Her photographs have also appeared in publications including Vogue Italia, Vanity Fair UK, and Harper’s Bazaar. Across her personal and commissioned practice, she continues to explore how photography can record shifting states of identity, intimacy, and lived experience. [Official Website]
