John Clang, Stephanie Chi-Weng Tsui (Singapore); her mother Alexia Wai-Chun Tye and partner Pierre de Fouquet (Paris) 2011

Singaporean photographer John Clang combines new technologies to update a very old genre – the family portrait.

Singapore being what it it is: a dynamic city with a motivated international population, its people tend to get separated and spread across the globe. To rejoin its families, Clang sets up a Skype link to connect people who are thousands of miles apart. The Skype image of the distant relative is projected inside the home and the family members pose as if in the same room. Then he photographs the result. It’s reassuring that despite all this globalisation, new technology and post modernity we still badly need our family connections.

You can see the complete set on the New York Times website

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