The Restrooms I’ve Photographed Over the Years

© Richard Huang

A friend once asked me, “I never see you photographing landscapes or still lifes—or birds, for that matter. So what do you photograph?” I said I photograph the little things around me. In truth, I photograph all sorts of things: everything from blue skies and white clouds to the paths I walk every day, from towering trees to weeds by the roadside. Eventually I thought, why not make a regular series of it and present the photographs by category? Each installment could be called “The ______ I’ve Photographed Over the Years.” Besides being fun to look at side by side, these groups of related images would preserve a record of just how much time and distance are contained in all the odds and ends I’ve photographed over the years.

© Richard Huang

For the first installment, let’s begin with restrooms. After all, eating, drinking, and answering nature’s calls are the most basic facts of everyday life.

© Richard Huang

When I photograph a restroom, my main interest isn’t the toilet but the mirror within that confined space, and how it reflects its surroundings and the curious things in them.

© Richard Huang

© Richard Huang

In the mirror, for example, two stems of orchids become four, creating the impression of flowers in lavish bloom.

© Richard Huang

© Richard Huang

© Richard Huang

I took this one at the Flat Mama restaurant in Budapest, Hungary.

© Richard Huang

With more mirrors, even stranger effects begin to appear.

© Richard Huang

In Hungary, Austria, and several other countries, you have to pay to use the restroom. Are the paid ones any better? I took this at Budapest’s Central Market Hall.

© Richard Huang

© Richard Huang

Before the pandemic, I traveled to Ottawa for work for many years. This was my temporary home there, where I stayed whenever I was in town on business. I grew attached to the place, so I made a series of photographs to remember it by.

© Richard Huang

I photographed this restroom on black-and-white film. Its grain and softness are something a digital camera simply cannot reproduce.

© Richard Huang

Unusual gender signs also make interesting subjects whenever I come across them.

© Richard Huang

Inside, there are all kinds of intriguing decorations.

© Richard Huang

Are these sexually suggestive pictures appropriate for a men’s restroom? What do you think?

© Richard Huang

I’m not fond of restroom graffiti, but if it’s already there, there’s no harm in documenting it.

© Richard Huang

Taking a self-portrait in a restroom feels a little odd—and takes a fair amount of nerve. But sometimes there’s no avoiding it, or I spot something interesting and include myself in the frame.

© Richard Huang

© Richard Huang

In this tiny space, for example, there are two separate signs reminding people not to throw paper towels on the floor.

© Richard Huang

This notice, found in the restroom of a Canadian federal government building, instructs civil servants on how to urinate properly. One wag, referring to the fourth method, commented, “Amazing.”

It seems discipline and edification are everywhere. Not even the restroom is spared.