The Korean artist Nikki S. Lee spent months observing different
social groups for Projects (1997–2001), a series of self-portraits exploring
how the company we keep affects the way we present ourselves to the world. Lee
immersed herself in various communities—Hispanics, lesbians, schoolgirls,
skateboarders, and senior citizens—and learned their every gesture. Wearing
their typical clothes, she would then ask a passerby or friend to capture a
moment of interaction in deliberately amateurish snapshots. The red time stamp
tells us that this photograph from the Yuppie Project was taken just two days
before Christmas, a busy time for well-to-do shoppers like Lee and her new
friends.