Solace

In response to my long-term Touch series, I was approached by Emerson & Wajdowicz Studios (EWS) to produce a related project about the LGBTQ+ community in China.
Specialising in socially-conscious multimedia design and art, EWS runs a photobook series devoted entirely to LGBTQ+ themed stories – showcasing the diversity and complexity of queer communities around the world.

In September 2019, I returned to Xiamen to portray 14 queer individuals and couples, all of whom I found through my existing network in the city. Alongside portraits of each person, and images of the private spaces they inhabit, Solace features interviews with each subject about life, love and their personal fears. Unable to return to Xiamen during the pandemic, I continued the project in the Netherlands, photographing young members of China’s LGBTQ community who had relocated to Europe. The book was published by New York’s The New Press in December 2022.

Sarah Mei Herman

Sarah Mei Herman is a Dutch photographer and visual artist. She holds a BA in Photography from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague, and an MA in Fine Art Photography from the Royal College of Art, London.

Throughout her practice, Herman explores relationships, loneliness, longing, intimacy, and the human urge for physical proximity. The passage of time is central to her work: through long-term photographic projects, she follows the same subjects over many years, exploring change, continuity, and the emotional resonance of memory.

Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions and festivals including the National Portrait Gallery, London; the Benaki Museum, Athens; Photo Elysée, Lausanne; Le Château d'Eau, Toulouse; the Jewish Museum, Amsterdam; and JIMEI × ARLES International Photo Festival, Xiamen. Her projects have received recognition through the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize, the Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories, the Arnold Newman Prize for New Directions in Photographic Portraiture, and the V&A Parasol Foundation Prize for Women in Photography. Her work is held in public and private collections and has been published by i-D, The Guardian, Vogue Italia, Foam Magazine, CNN, Paper Journal, and Dear Dave.

Herman’s second monograph, Julian & Jonathan, was published by GOST Books. The project was presented in solo exhibitions at Concertgebouw Brugge (Belgium) and GLAZ Festival (Rennes, France) in 2025, and in 2026 is included in the group exhibition Come Together at Les Rencontres d'Arles.

• https://www.sarahmeiherman.nl/