This is an exhibited work for COMM4962, digital documentation below:
"In dialogue with nature" was a photograph series inspired by my experience in the trail. Over time, I strongly feel how weak humans are in front of the vast and uncontrollable nature. While we should be grateful and humble to it, visitors behave seemingly not in my home country, more like a passer by who only craves for beautiful sceneries and leaves destruction to the land.
My series didn’t mean to judge those people in my perspective. Instead, I would like to explore the idea of how could we coexist with the nature. I questioned if we could develop a close relationship, consume and develop in a sustainable manner. a phrase in Chinese 「弱水三千，只取一瓢」concludes this. However, upon closer inspection, it reveals a more complex situation.
The locations I focused is three Hakka villages in Hong Kong: Lai Chi Wo（荔枝窩）, Kuk Po（谷埔）and Yim Tin Tsai（鹽田梓）. While village revitalization campaign and sustainable farming technologies are widely promoted in these villages, the local people can’t actually make a living by farming with restricted fertilization usage and its fragility under Hong Kong’s weather condition. The only resort is tourism, and here is where the vicious cycle of over-consuming and destruction begins. By the use of natural pigments, I tried to build the relationship with their homeland, and reveal the local dilemma they are facing through the local resources.
This work consists of three parts to form the narrative. Digital pinhole Camera was used to produce the images (portraits are shot by phone), to build a closer and longer observation with the land. The first part was an installation of three monochrome pinhole images in a mangrove in Kuk Po, showing environmental problems under urban development. The second part was photographs printed with natural pigments – Turmeric, Ferns (from abandoned farmlands as cyanotype toners) and salt, collected from the aforementioned villages respectively. Excerpts of interviews with villagers are presented as cyanotype prints, where “blueprints” is a symbol of development goals and visions in Hong Kong. The third part was a giant 60x60cm cyanotype image produced in the beach. It symbolises the vasty ocean and the most intimate and pure relationship with our land, to place and drift my original intents unanswered thoughts, hopes to the balance between nature and mankind, to this boundless realm.
My series didn’t mean to judge those people in my perspective. Instead, I would like to explore the idea of how could we coexist with the nature. I questioned if we could develop a close relationship, consume and develop in a sustainable manner. a phrase in Chinese 「弱水三千，只取一瓢」concludes this. However, upon closer inspection, it reveals a more complex situation.
The locations I focused is three Hakka villages in Hong Kong: Lai Chi Wo（荔枝窩）, Kuk Po（谷埔）and Yim Tin Tsai（鹽田梓）. While village revitalization campaign and sustainable farming technologies are widely promoted in these villages, the local people can’t actually make a living by farming with restricted fertilization usage and its fragility under Hong Kong’s weather condition. The only resort is tourism, and here is where the vicious cycle of over-consuming and destruction begins. By the use of natural pigments, I tried to build the relationship with their homeland, and reveal the local dilemma they are facing through the local resources.
This work consists of three parts to form the narrative. Digital pinhole Camera was used to produce the images (portraits are shot by phone), to build a closer and longer observation with the land. The first part was an installation of three monochrome pinhole images in a mangrove in Kuk Po, showing environmental problems under urban development. The second part was photographs printed with natural pigments – Turmeric, Ferns (from abandoned farmlands as cyanotype toners) and salt, collected from the aforementioned villages respectively. Excerpts of interviews with villagers are presented as cyanotype prints, where “blueprints” is a symbol of development goals and visions in Hong Kong. The third part was a giant 60x60cm cyanotype image produced in the beach. It symbolises the vasty ocean and the most intimate and pure relationship with our land, to place and drift my original intents unanswered thoughts, hopes to the balance between nature and mankind, to this boundless realm.
Sidenotes:
I felt some limitations in this project. The first is the use of digital stuff: camera and digital print. At first, I would like to develop film image with local plants but unfortunately I broke that in the location shooting process. The use of digital negatives as well as I am not able to make a “giant” film in this stage. For the first part, I chose to print with inkjet for the sake of image quality and size, where details of waves and wastes on the sand are of more importance.
Salt printing involves use of silver components. I put some dollar cents in the used fixer to extract and filter out the silver materials before disposal. I only used recycled paper for turmeric prints, as for other printing methods, thicker paper is required for viewable image, texture of 300g watercolour paper looks crap. More research on printing medium could be done.
The work may seem not coherent enough as well. There are some impulsions where this kind of “exhibitions” and ideas are something I wanted to try out badly. It would be good to have more thinking and consideration behind this work, but still a fruitful journey though.
I felt some limitations in this project. The first is the use of digital stuff: camera and digital print. At first, I would like to develop film image with local plants but unfortunately I broke that in the location shooting process. The use of digital negatives as well as I am not able to make a “giant” film in this stage. For the first part, I chose to print with inkjet for the sake of image quality and size, where details of waves and wastes on the sand are of more importance.
Salt printing involves use of silver components. I put some dollar cents in the used fixer to extract and filter out the silver materials before disposal. I only used recycled paper for turmeric prints, as for other printing methods, thicker paper is required for viewable image, texture of 300g watercolour paper looks crap. More research on printing medium could be done.
The work may seem not coherent enough as well. There are some impulsions where this kind of “exhibitions” and ideas are something I wanted to try out badly. It would be good to have more thinking and consideration behind this work, but still a fruitful journey though.
