EXHIBITION
160mm x 290mm, 12 folds
comprehensive materials
Photobook, only one
2023
comprehensive materials
Photobook, only one
2023
The first photograph in the history of human photography, "The Light from the Window", is an image obtained by an exposure time of more than 8 hours, since then mankind has continuously updated and improved the technology, but no matter how much the traditional photographic technology has changed, the essence of the image obtained can still be streamlined into two things: time and transfer. In this old album, these images have been transferred for more than 40 years, but the way it was transferred is perhaps the most primitive, just the trace obtained from the long time of fitting and squeezing one object with another. Such traces can also be found in the relationship between man and the land in traditional Chinese agrarian society, which forms the original form of the traditional bond of life - sticking together. However, contemporary society is gradually tearing these links apart, weakening our sense of intimacy. The link between people is built in intimacy, and when this link is broken, it means death.
At the beginning of 2023, I received this family album from my grandmother and also started the production of the photo book. The latest photo in the album was of a newborn child over 10 years ago, and since then no new photos have been added, and the family album has gradually been forgotten. I spent more than eight hours in a room filled with toluene and xylene, enduring the constant shock of the pungent odour on my nervous system, seriously taking out the old photos and trying to rearrange them with the new ones in a new narrative, and finally completing this "Book of Imageless".
人类摄影史上的第一张照片《窗子里看到的光景》，它是一张曝光时长超过8小时所得到的图像，此后人类不断的更新和改良技术，但无论传统摄影技术如何更迭，得到图像的本质依旧可以精简成了两个东西，时间与转印。在这本已有的老相册里，这些图像已经被转印了40多年，但它转印的方式或许是最原始的，仅仅是一个物体与另一个物体的长时间贴合，挤压所得到的痕迹。这种痕迹也映射在了传统中国土地社会中人与土地的关系里，构建了传统生命链接的原始形态—彼此黏合。然而当代社会正在逐渐撕裂这些链接，弱化我们对于亲密关系的感知。人与人的链接，构建在亲密关系之中，而当这种链接断裂，也就意味着死亡。
在2023年年初，我从外婆手里拿到了这本家庭相册，也开始了摄影书的制作。相册里最新的照片是10多年前一个刚出生的孩子，至此之后就再也没有添置新的照片了，这本家庭相册也逐渐被遗忘。我花费8个多小时的时间，呆在一间充满甲苯和二甲苯的空间当中，在此期间，我强忍着刺鼻气味对我神经系统的不断冲击，我严肃地取出其中的老照片，并设法以新的叙事将其与新照片重新编排，最终完成了这本“无像之书”。
The Video of Flip Photobook
Solvent Transfer
1’48’’
2023
Materials Overview