Lee Lin Chin, stylesetter and former broadcaster, was born in Indonesia and raised in Singapore, where in 1968 she began working in television and radio. After arriving in Australia in 1980 she worked as a translator of Chinese language films and with ABC radio in Darwin and Newcastle before joining SBS as a newsreader in 1988, gaining devoted viewers through her stern delivery and superbly cut tops and jackets. As host of the network's Fashionista program she built a reputation as a style authority, in 2008 curating the National Archives of Australia exhibition of historical fashion photographs, Strike a Pose … With Lee Lin Chin. Known also as a comedian and a voice for social change, she has a huge social media following although she posts little, if anything, herself, retaining an intriguing air of mystery. Among the causes Chin supports is The Social Studio, dedicated to creating employment and educational pathways for young people who have been refugees.
George Fetting approached Chin with the idea of photographing her in 'geisha' style. Fetting took this photograph in a patch of natural light in a corner near the SBS cafeteria, the station's employees passing by without raising an eyebrow at the fashionista's bandeau of Indian silk. Chin states that she likes the portrait 'because it's so unashamedly attention-grabbing – which isn't me at all'.
Gift of the artist 2021
© George Fetting/Copyright Agency, 2024
A portrait of former broadcaster and style icon Lee-Lin Chin by George Fetting, created in 2004. Type C photograph on paper measuring 120 centimetres high by 95 centimetres wide.
Lee-Lin Chin is photographed from the waist up, facing front on and standing against a white wall. Her face is made-up in the traditional Japanese ‘geisha’ style of makeup in contrast to her Chinese-Malay heritage.
Her salt and peppered hair is cropped short and stands upright to frame her face, the light grey and white hairs at the front transitioning to black towards the back. Her face and neck are painted a chalky white. Her eyebrows are arched over almond-shaped eyes softly outlined in black pencil liner. Her eyes are opened wide in a dramatic fashion highlighting the whites of her eyes framing brown irises. Below her cheekbones, pale pink blush has been sparingly applied. Her plump lips have been covered in white makeup to disguise their natural shape. A vibrant crimson-red lipstick transforms her mouth to create an illusion of a small flower bud.
The white paint on her neck tapers out to a hazy edge, smudged around her collarbone and revealing her bare- skinned shoulders. Her arms are concealed in the bandeau of black silk folded under the fabric. The bandeau stops at waist height revealing the bare skin of her lower torso.
Audio description script written by Alana Sivell and voiced by Kate Matthews
George Fetting (5 portraits)
On one level The Companion talks about the most famous and frontline Australians, but on another it tells us about ourselves.
Basketballer Andrew Gaze and photographer George Fetting.
Well behaved women seldom make history, as the saying goes, and the National Portrait Gallery, consequently, is full of awesome Australian women who refused to conform to narrow ideas about their place and their worth.
