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Capturing moments of connection with friends and family abroad
In 2006, Autograph commissioned Dinu Li to mark the 50th anniversary of The Lonely Londoners, Sam Selvon’s classic novel about West Indian immigrant life in the 1950s. Li’s response was to create a set of portraits, illustrating not only how circumstances have changed for today’s diverse communities, but also revealing the interplay between closeness and distance as manifested by each individual caller’s body language.
For the commission, titled Press the *, Then Say Hello, Li worked with the customers of high-street internet phone shops in four areas of Manchester: Longsight, Moss Side, Rusholme and Whalley Range. Li photographed the customers - the majority of whom were recent migrants - as they phoned abroad, their bodies in one space and their minds elsewhere.
Johannes Vermeer, Girl Reading A Letter at an Open Window, 1657–1659
The photographs reflect on the notion of the 'global village' and reference paintings by Vermeer. In Pavel Büchler's review of the work for Portfolio Magazine, he describes how: "The picture, composed strikingly like a mirror-reversed detail from Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, shows a young Asian woman quietly listening to a distant caller. The visual means which in the celebrated 17th century painting create a profound tension between intimacy and distance can all be accounted for in its 21st century counterpart: the lighting, the sparsely furnished enclosed space, indicated in the painting by a partially drawn curtain, the reflection of the face in the glass or mirror, and the small but prominent bright highlight which draws my attention to the letter in the painting or, here, to the white receiver."
Dinu Li was born in Hong Kong and currently lives and works in Cornwall, UK. Li is an interdisciplinary artist working with the moving image, photography, sculptural assemblages and performance. In his practice, Li examines the manifestation of culture in the everyday, finding new meaning to the familiar, making visible the seemingly invisible. Archives play an active role in his work, and they are often used as points of departure for his projects.
Li's methodology is research based, with an emphasis on appropriation and reconfiguration. Li’s work is often characterised by problematising the document as part of the modus operandi.
Li has exhibited both nationally and internationally and his works are held in private collections in Berlin, London, St Gallen and Zurich. Find out more on Li's website.
This photograph is in Autograph's permanent collection of photography, where it has been conserved and digitised
Featured in exhibitions at institutions including Autograph, Manchester Art Gallery and Tashkent Biennale, Uzbekistan
This series of work was part of the inaugural exhibition when Autograph opened its gallery space at Rivington Place in October 2007
Banner image: Dinu Li, Moss Side 03, from the series Press the *, Then Say Hello,. © Dinu Li and courtesy of Autograph, London.
Images on page: 1) Johannes Vermeer, Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window ca. 1659. Public domain via Wikimedia Commons. 2) Photo of Dinu Li, courtesy the artist. 3) Sim Chi Yin, from the series “The suitcase is a little bit rotten”, commissioned by Autograph for Critical Times: Dialogues in Contemporary Photography (2022), supported by the Bagri Foundation.
Autograph is a place to see things differently. Since 1988, we have championed photography that explores issues of race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice, sharing how photographs reflect lived experiences and shape our understanding of ourselves and others.
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