Women and the Totemic Veil

Documenting other women through photography becomes the vehicle for the photographer to explore issues of identity, beginning with herself. She tells of her displacement from Malaysia, to the United States and eventually settling in France and how this modern nomadic life precipitates questions of Who am I? What are my roots? Do they matter? Armed with a clunky 19th-century viewfinder camera she dialogues with her subjects to both learn about them and collect pieces of her fragmented self. She reveals, “When I left Malaysia at 14 all the pieces of me just exploded.”