About Foto per Lei

I was tempted to put down opening words like one sees in photo gallery shows, something in the vein of: “the metaphysical being that revealed itself in the lens is a unique manifestation of the state of perpetrator's mind…”. But I cannot bring myself to that level of word-craftsmanship, nor do I think my works are at that level of philosophical theorization.  I can only see what I see, nothing more, nothing less.

I grew up in a world of black-and-white photos, mostly done by my father, in the lab at his research institute, where microscopic images of metals and alloys were taken and enlarged.  This was somewhat unusual – camera was not a household item then – and, as result, I was blessed with a wealth of pictorial documentation of my childhood, comparatively speaking.  Even with free darkroom usage, photography was still a luxury we could barely afford.  No picture was “wasted” on any subject other than family members, posing stiffly, dressed in Sunday best.  Fast forward a few decades, my hometown Shanghai, like the rest of country, is barely recognizable thanks to the unprecedented economic boom.  Those black-and-white photos are all I have left to connect to my childhood.  Photography, to me, therefore, is a time machine to port us back to a time and place we cannot reach physically any more. 

There is a danger, however, to turn photos into a documentary.  Like any creative works, photos reflect the eyes and minds of the persons who take them.  The island of Hvar in my photos is only one version of the place in a specific time – I cannot revisit that island again just as I cannot step into the same river twice.  But I think I can live with that – we are, in a way, just a collection of places and times in a very short span of this universe.