by Yang Li (Author), Antoine D'Agata (Photographer)
A 23-volume hand-treated limited edition compiling portraits of Chinese women
This avant-garde fashion publication by designer Yang Li (born 1987) and photographer Antoine d'Agata (born 1961), consisting of 23 LP album covers and booklets, presents visceral portraits of 23 women they encountered throughout China. Since launching his eponymous label in 2012, Li has drawn on underground references to create a darkly romantic aesthetic. For his very first campaign he contacted d'Agata, and together they took to the streets and approached over 300 women from vastly different walks of life to capture their stories in image and word.
The photographs vibrate with a confrontational physicality; the intimate texts, transcripts of the subjects' own voices, touch on themes of self-knowledge and beauty, love and disillusion, personal freedom and social constraint. The volumes are housed in a slipcase that has been distressed by hand with tape--a final expression of the individualistic spirit of the project. Limited edition of 300.