Grace Lau’s Portraits in a Chinese Studio at Hastings Museum & Art Gallery, features photographs of people from Hastings and St Leonards captured in the style of Victorian studio portraits.

Lau said: “Through this project I am making an oblique comment on Imperialist visions of the ‘exotic’ Chinese and, by reversing roles, I have become the Imperialist photographer documenting my exotic subjects in the South of England.”

The exhibition places subjects on ‘mock’ traditional Chinese furniture against decorative backdrops, but includes modern items such as mobile phones and plastic shopping bags, creating a clear contrast between past and present.

The project began in 2005 with the first portraits taken in Hastings, and concluded in St Leonards in 2025, forming a 20-year archive.

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