While I push deeper and deeper into street photography, I realize that my artist statement changes frequently. After I go through all the moments which I captured on the streets, I discovered a pattern that fascinates me. I never realized the people and the objects on the streets can have such a harmonic coexistence which can leave a mysterious moment about its precursor.
As a wanderer and most important, a watcher, it’s inevitable to be passionate to have interactions with other people. However, my camera offers me the opportunity to sit back and watch other people’s lives which I enjoyed. I would say that after I tried to mimic how Garry Winogrand finds his vantage point on the street, I spent two years watching other people’s lives which gives me a better experience of seeing the world from a different perspective. The moments which other people possessed are also something I experienced as a stranger and an outsider. By defining those moments, the photographs also define me—the man behind the camera. People in my photographs always have their mysterious aspects which lure me to think about their stories. Whenever I think about all the moments contained by the photographs, I realize that the people are helping me remember my own memories with their unique “moments”.
When I think about the moments that I experienced on the streets, I am confused about what is real. At the time, I truly missed the moment that was present to the other subject but was only exposed to my viewpoint. The photographs, which contain the moments, offer me the opportunity to seek the realness of life. I am becoming the personas of many strangers who I treasure.
