Yan Wang Preston’s print After ‘Olympia, 1863’, 2023_A Self-Portrait has been acquired by the National Portrait Gallery in London, UK. The work was originally made as a test print for Yan’s After ‘Olympia’ series. Upon reviewing the result, Yan recognised the quality of the image in its very rawness. It was set in her studio with no tidy-up done. The ‘stage’ was only indicative, with some creasy bed sheets and one floral scarf. Yan worn no make-up and only tied her hair up loosely with a rubber band. Yet the ‘look’ was there, and the body position was right. Yan decided that this was a more truthful self-portrait and entered it for the National Portrait Gallery’s 2024 Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize. The rest is history.

The image was shot on an 8 by 10 inch field camera. The print itself is an 8 by10 inch contact print on silver-gelatin fibre-based paper measured at 9 by 11.5 inch. To underscore its nature as a self-portrait, Yan personally printed the work and spotted it. It is issued as an extremely small edition: 1 + 2AP. The print for the National Portrait Gallery is the one and only existing print except the two artist proofs. Printed in May 2024.