3cm is Yung Cheng Lin, a photographer from Tainan, Taiwan whose work focuses on body manipulation, the female form, and visuals that can be both beautiful and gory at the same time. His photography tends to examine the topics of sexuality, birth, maturity, fragility, and often feature surreal compositions. These stunning images mixed with blood, hair, and skin compel and disturb viewers at the same time. We spoke to him recently about the themes behind his work.
3cm(林永政)是一名來自台灣台南的攝影師應承琳的艺名。他的創作主要專注於女性輪廓以及頗具美感的視覺元素的結合拍攝。他的作品詳細的描述了諸多關於出身，性，成熟，脆弱和超現實的場景。這些令人驚嘆的圖像常與血液，毛髮和皮膚混合，總能讓觀者深感壓迫與不安。近期，我們與他探討了隱藏在其作品之後的故事。
Neocha: Can you tell us about how you first got into photography, and what you studied or did previous to that? Was there anything in particular that set you off on the path of photography? What are some of your biggest influences in life, or in the way that you approach your art?
3cm: In art school, I studied fine arts and related subjects. Photography to me was easier to control, and I could quickly see the results onscreen. After I graduated, working took up most of my time, and left less time for painting and sculpture, so eventually that was replaced by digital mediums. In the past few years I’ve mainly focused on my own creative photography.
Neocha: 可否談談你是如何踏上攝影之路的？你之前的專業或是工作主要是做什麼的？有沒有什麼特別的東西導致你踏上攝影之路？對你人生或創作方式上產生最大影響的是什麼？
3cm: 求學時期就讀美術相關科系。然而「相機與畫筆」也就只是媒材上面的轉換，攝影對我來說甚至更好掌控，且能快速呈現畫面。出了社會，工作時間佔了大多數，能騰出足夠空間來作畫或雕塑更是少之又少，逐漸的由數位取代了既有的方式。因此，近幾年的自主創作以攝影為大宗。
Neocha: You work with mostly women in your photography. Is there a significance to that?
3cm: The traditional perception of women is that they are very fragile and elegant beings. The idea of that, alongside the topics I tend to explore, often relates to females and femininity. These things cohesively comes together to form into my work, which I then present to viewers for their own interpretation.
Neocha: 在你的攝影作品中大部分出現的都是女性，可否談談這樣做的意義？
3cm: 在傳統認知上，女性給人的印象是優雅的及脆弱的，加上個人所探討的議題多與女性相關，構成上是符合想呈現給觀看者的感受。
Neocha: Birth, pain, sexuality, intimacy, rot, and disease seem to be referenced in your work. What draws you to these themes, if they are indeed there? How do you come up with your ideas and concepts?
3cm: Social structures can contain a lot of gender inequality, unequal distribution and stratification, blind and senseless gender norms. These have all been a part of my life and experience.
In my ongoing series Red Line, I explore people’s belief in religion: is it real or is it imagined? The red line in the images represents faith, the pursuit of marriage, also bearing witness to sacrifices made in the name of love. How does a mere red line help someone reach salvation, and is it real? The feeling of pain is the first thing that I want viewers to see. The feeling of loneliness and lack of love is something I’m playing with between the photographer and the viewer, kind of an interesting twist on interactive feedback.
I love reading poetry. The words form a fantasy world, which I then combine with my real life experiences to create my work. Ancient poetry often provides me new ideas to make more complex images.
Neocha: 出生、痛苦、性、親密關係、衰敗以及疾病似乎都是你作品中會出現的影子。你為什麼會創作這類主題？它們是真實存在你生活中的嗎？你是如何萌發靈感和創作概念的？
3cm: 社會結構上存在著各種權利分配的不平等和曲解，即性別階層化，探討各性別理所面對的矛盾、盲目甚至無理的兩性規範，也都是我生活周遭的經驗和體悟所得的。
就如同目前正在進行的系列作品(紅線)，探討的是人民追隨宗教信仰，那是實還是虛呢，畫面裡出現的紅線正是代表著信仰，拜月老求姻緣，也述說著為愛情做出的改變與付出，區區一條紅線為何能幫助自己得到救贖，是真實的嗎?疼痛感是觀看者第一眼的感受也是我希望的，反思而產生對於被攝者的關懷，如同缺乏愛情的人總是覺得寂寞需要多一點的關愛，也是種互動回饋概念，耐人玩味。
平常喜愛閱讀詩詞，藉由文字間產出的幻想及畫面的浮現，再與生活經歷結合，咀嚼成一個作品。故詩詞總能給予我新思維，創造出更多元化的影像。
Neocha: What is your work process like, in terms of idea creation, posing, casting, and technical detail? Do you shoot only with one kind of camera? Is there a lot of post-production involved? Do you mainly shoot in controlled environments or venture out to public spaces?
3cm: I usually shoot with quite simple equipment: only one camera, with minimal equipment and people. Before shooting, I have a sketch of how I want the image to be, so that I can communicate to the model and know what to do for post-production. But usually, I shoot it just the way I want it to be and don’t add much during post-production.
I like to shoot both indoors and outdoors – both kinds of environments can give me unexpected effects, which I think is good.
Neocha: 從創意靈感、姿勢、選角以及技術等細節上來講，你的工作流程是怎樣的？你是否只是用一種相機？會不會有大量後期工作？你會比較傾向於在可控的環境中工作還是去公共區域來些即興發 ？
3cm: 進行拍攝時設備簡單為主，只使用一台相機來進行拍攝，沒有過多的裝備和人力，通常在拍攝前就會把畫面擬畫成草圖也方便與model溝通和後期工作，但拍攝時基本上會盡量就達到我要的畫面，後期的工作占比較小。
兩種環境下我都會使用，也都會有預期不到的效果，對我來說都是好的。
Neocha: What are you currently working on and what are you looking forward to in the future?
3cm: I plan to create visuals based on the text from the book Lover’s Discourse. Also I hope to collaborate in different projects with others artists or brands in the future. Maybe mixing together different mediums to create something fun.
Neocha: 你最近在創作什麼？未來有什麼打算？
3cm: 計畫把“戀人絮語“一書內的優雅文字轉化成圖像，也希望能多與他人或是商業案合作，多元結合，玩味性高。
