Combining personal texts and photos, it narrates Lim’s sexual identity and his nine-year relationship with his partner, while also representing the broader struggle of many youths who navigate their sense of self in conservative, heteronormative societies. Lim begins the book with handwritten texts that establish his confessional tone: “My truth has always been an untouchable, unspeakable illusion / I want to be unlimited too ….” Such thoughts reoccur and give autobiographic nuance to his suggestive, hushed photos, which include self-portraits, still lifes and landscapes. This lyrical interplay between text and image captures a sense of the often unspoken norms that Lim has overcome and his “open secret,” which for many years even his family could only speculate on.
