The Yuppie Project (17) 1998

Nikki S. Lee made this photograph, "The Yuppie Project (17)," using a snapshot camera sometime around 1998. I think a lot about how an artist chooses to make a mark, or in this case, point and shoot a photograph. It’s about more than just capturing an image; it’s about being present in a situation. This photograph has a distinctive color palette, with muted greens and grays, reflecting the park setting. Look at the date, scrawled on the bottom right of the image – November 2, 1998. You can almost feel the chill in the air, right? There’s a certain flatness and slightly faded quality to the image. It’s like a memory, filtered through time. Lee has a way of inserting herself into different social groups. It reminds me a bit of Cindy Sherman’s explorations of identity and representation. Both artists play with the idea of the self as fluid, unfixed. Art's a conversation, right?