South Korean Kim Jee-yun did not have to look far for inspiration for her photography project, “m<other>”. It started with her personal story about intermarriage and mixed-race children. “‘M<other>’ is about racial awareness and the perceptions towards the different external appearances of a mother and child, and the development of self-representation in mixed-race teenagers,” Kim says. “I took portraits of mothers and their mixed children who were friends, neighbours and people I met through social media.” Most visuals were captured in Hong Kong, where Kim is now based with her Chinese husband, while some were taken in Shanghai. “M<other>” will be Kim’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong and comprises photographs and videos from the 10-year project. It will be held at Soluna Fine Art, in Sheung Wan, from February 2 to March 2. A mix of East and West, Hong Kong, she says, “gives rise to interracial families and concerns for their child’s identity, which vary depending on age, the level of education and the environment they grow up in”. Initially the project focused on the visible differences between mother and child, such as skin and hair colour. “When my eldest child became a teenager, the focus shifted to the identity and self-representation of mixed adolescents,” she says. “I found that interracial families negotiate their identities within diverse societies, with age, education and place of upbringing affecting attitudes.” August Sander, a German portrait and documentary photographer whose ambitious project “People of the 20th Century” is a visual record of the German populace was a major inspiration. “From the early 1920s until his death [in 1964], Sander took portraits of hundreds of German citizens and categorised them by social type and occupation, from farm labourers to circus performers to prosperous businessmen and aristocrats,” says Kim. “Sander once said, ‘The portrait is your mirror. It’s you.’ He believed that, through photography, he could reveal the characteristic traits of people. He used these images to tell each person’s story; their profession, politics, social situation and background”. Ten per cent of proceeds from exhibition sales will be donated to Mother’s Choice , a Hong Kong charity that cares for pregnant women and girls in crisis, and for babies and young children awaiting adoption. Some of the children featured in the series were adopted.