Sanne De Wilde

I am inspired by the role genetics play in the lives of people and how this shapes and affects communities. ‘The Island of the Colorblind’, tells the story of Pingelap and Pohnpei, islands with an extraordinary high percentage of achromatopsia (complete colorblindness) in Micronesia and ‘Samoa Kekea’ is about a Polynesian community with a high percentage of albinism in Samoa. I conduct visual research to explore these topics. The projects, as the subject, take different photographic forms (depending on the concept); varying from portraits to landscapes, abstract to documentary images, images shot by the subject, cooperative imagery, text and video, interactive installations… I use different mediums to translate the content of the work.

My work explores physical stereotyping in ‘Snow White’, a portrait series of people with albinism, where I seek to highlight the fragility and beauty of the condition and in ‘The Dwarf Empire’, a project set in China. 'The Dwarf Empire' or 'The Kingdom of the Little People', is a highly questionable fantasy theme park in Yunnan province and ‘home’ to 77 people with dwarfism it is the perfect embodiment of a modern ‘zoo humain’ and capitalist culture, the park being founded by a ‘tall’ business man. The park combines entertainment with a level of ‘social care’. Twice a day, the residents sing for their supper to an audience of tourists. Simultaneously The Dwarf Empire could be seen a moral tale of subjectivity - by Western standards the park is rejected and unethical, but by some of the residents described as a ‘paradise’.

I try to explore issues as voyeurism and the concept of otherness- the way we view people and what that ultimately says about us.