The Many Faces of Tommy Kha
I’m Only Here to Leave © Tommy Kha
Tommy Kha creates self-portraits without being in front of the camera. I’m Only Here to Leave is a photography series that takes portraiture into a new realm, using cardboard cutouts and a mask of his face to create images that feature his body without actually being in it. Kha is from Memphis but currently lives in Brooklyn, and has been working on the series since 2015. In the world of Western art, historically rooted in whiteness and heterosexuality, Kha explores a world where he can place himself in the corners of the artworld where he is rarely seen. Because of this, he says, he decided to quite literally insert himself into places he wished to be seen.
I’m Only Here to Leave © Tommy Kha
He started by using a mask of his face, placed on idealized queer and Asian bodies, trying to reconnect with two sides of himself he felt he could never fully embody. Some images show friends and family, and others are complete strangers. The series explores queerness, both in terms sexuality and non-normativity, and the experience of not quite fitting in. By featuring his family, he represents the generational roots that brought him to Memphis, and the way his multifaceted identity interacts with the people who raised him.
“ This project started to manifest during my Light Work residency back in 2015 as masks... By then, I was trying to figure myself into my own work without having to physically do so. I was also reacting to being dismissed because I wasn’t interested in making work about being Asian, or being Queer, but the intersections of those identities.””
I’m Only Here to Leave © Tommy Kha
I’m Only Here to Leave has a vast range of experimental self-portraiture. In one image, he can be seen peeking from behind a chair in two places, as his mother sits in the corner of the room. Some of them appear completely distorted; in one, a mask of Kha’s face appears as misfigured as Dali’s melting clocks. In another, his face is placed on the head of a marble Greek-like statue. One shows Kha posing in front of the lens, with temporarily tattooed eyeballs, to create an alienesque figure in the doorway. In my personal favorite, his face is being thrown against a wall like a kickball. The images range from intimate displays of self-exploration, to humorous and full of whimsy.
I’m Only Here to Leave © Tommy Kha
Kha has a tremendous amount of work propelling his career forward. One of his most popular photography projects features images of him kissing strangers, friends, and partners. There are not many artists exploring the intersectional relationships between being queer, Asian, and Southern. In an interview with Aperture, Kha talks about an entire Chinese community he came across in the Mississippi Delta. He explains how vital this community would have been when he was a kid, finally seeing people that sounded and looked like he did. Since they weren’t allowed in Black or White schools, they started their own, and many people in the community run grocery stories that supply food to both the Chinese and Black community.
I’m Only Here to Leave © Tommy Kha
Kha, as an Asian queer Southerner, did not even know of the community until a food documentary came out about them, showcasing the importance of photographers like himself, who are exploring the nuances of the self. In I’m Only Here to Leave, he only scratches the surface of the places his career will take him to, with playful, intuitive images that push the boundaries of self-portraiture.
See more of Tommy Kha’s work here.
