Mis-taken identities: The photographic conceptualization of identity in Nikki S. Lee's 'Projects' (1997--2001)

This thesis examines artist Nikki S. Lee's Projects photographs taken from 1997 to 2001 and their entanglement with discourses of culture and identity. In this series, a collection of snapshots captures Lee in different guises as she engages with members of several cultural communities after whom she models her appearance. Through her peculiar use of the snapshot vernacular, Lee challenges subject-object binaries fixed to the glossy surface of the photograph, thus making questionable the verity of the Projects photographs. Projects urges the viewer to reconstruct narratives to reconcile the indeterminate relationships between Lee and her hosts and more significantly between the viewer and members of each depicted culture. These ambiguities elicit and address questions about the complex and often problematic visual expressions of identity and the subtle ways that such representations both promote and challenge dominant visual paradigms of society.