Ann Woo

Ann Woo was born and raised in Hong Kong. She received her BA in Design from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and finished a certificate program at the International Center of Photography in New York in 2009. Her work has been the subject of numerous group exhibitions, including “NOW: Art in the 21st Century at Phillips de Pury & Company,” New York, a two–person exhibition at NADA Art Fair 2009, Miami. Her work has been featured in various publications including Fantom Photographic Quarterly, It’s Nice That, Lay Flat , Monthly Photography (South Korea), IMA (Japan) and “Background Noise” by JSBJ. Woo’s work is permanently held in the Zabludowicz and Tischman Speyer Art Collections. Today we share a selection of images from Ann’s porfolio.

Ann Woo’s work questions the nature of photographic representation through its own process and meaning. Much opposite to the recent trend of digital photography, she uses traditional methods (shooting on negatives and printing darkroom) to make simplistic photographs – which often appear as though they were unreal or digitized. Ultimately, Woo’s work is driven by an obsession to capture ‘reality,’ and an earnest search for truth.

In ‘Portraits, Landscapes, Still Lives’, images from different genres – some lilies and a person, a sunset and a stonewall are presented as a group with no order of importance. These photographs reflect nothing about the subject’s background or interest except for their outlook.

In the ‘Sunset’ series, the spectrum photographs were originally printed from one single negative. This image of a pure tonal gradient was taken from a clear, cloudless day. There is no real object—neither person nor tree—to provide an anchoring point for true grey. Therefore no substantial evidence to what was ‘true’ exists. The result is whole spectrum of colors being printed in a desperate attempt to circumscribe the truth within a mass of imagery. Perhaps my photographs are purely instinctual.

To view more of Ann’s work, please visit her website.