Wilson Santos

    UNRUSHED.
    UNCOMPROMISED.
    UNAPOLOGETIC.

    Yin and Yang

    Digital · Black & White · Studio

    Black on one side. White on the other. Two women, and the line between them.

    Each is what the other is not, and neither can stay away. They lean in. They find the line and meet on it. Eyes close, a hand crosses, the line stops dividing.

    They stay together, and nothing is truly settled.

    Black and white square close crop of two women in profile, foreheads touching at the line between a black and a white wall, series Yin and Yang

    Artistic Statement

    Yin and yang is the idea that opposites are not enemies. Each needs the other to be whole. This was the first project I made as my own, and I wanted to put that idea on two people: one in black, one in white, a wall split the same way, and the question of where they meet.

    I had worked with Ana Pereira before. I had never worked with Jessica Rodrigues. Both took the idea further than I asked for.

    I expected a balance that settles the scene. The frames say something different. Nobody is ever even. One leans in while the other turns and watches. One shows her face and the other keeps hers back. Then it turns, and they trade. In a relationship it rarely sits level either. It holds because each gives what the other withholds.

    The last frame takes us back to where we started. Each side now carries a little of the other, like the dot in each half of the symbol. The circle closes.

    Black and white photograph of two women standing side by side against a wall split black and white, one in profile on the black, one facing the camera on the white, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of one woman resting her head on the arm of another, who looks back over her shoulder at the camera, split black and white wall behind, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of two women facing the camera close together, one holding the other's arm, against a wall split black and white, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of two women in profile with their foreheads touching at the line where a black wall meets a white one, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of two women in profile face to face across the line between a black and a white wall, one hand open against the other's cheek, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of two women with closed eyes holding each other close, one hand at the other's jaw, black and white wall behind, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of two women in profile standing nose to nose with closed eyes at the line between a black and a white wall, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of one woman looking at the camera over the shoulder of another, who faces away showing her bare shoulders and the top of her back, series Yin and Yang
    Black and white photograph of a woman with a finger at her lips looking at the camera from the black half of a split wall, while another stands with her bare back to us on the white half, series Yin and Yang

    ← Selected Series · Next series: As She Is →

    The sequence, act structure, and extended frame notes are available on request.

    Begin an inquiry