Category: Street Beijing

For a long time in the past, I thought photography was about taking pictures of scenery, friends, and family. When I saw Henri Cartier-Bresson’s street photography album in a bookstore, I had to close the book and hide my face to prevent strangers from seeing how excited I was. It turns out that street photography can amplify our sympathy and love and guide us to feel the enlightenment of life.

Since then, I often go out with a camera, sometimes a Leica, sometimes a compact. I don’t deliberately look for opportunities, but take my chances. Especially if someone is running in a hurry, I take a picture immediately. I know there must be a goal behind every person in a hurry. She and I have a common goal – to seize opportunities. It’s just that we express it in different ways, she uses running and I use shutter.

Time is like a wave that washes away all the hand-painted artwork on the beach. It will also wash away the footprints that each of us has left on the streets. And I will use my camera to record those calm and innocent expressions on film. Unbeknownst to the photographed, with the sound of the shutter, they are like falling crystal raindrops dancing on the edge of time.

Watching the flowers bloom so beautifully, it seems that life should be so beautiful too, and all your worries will dissipate. Therefore, whenever I come across a beautiful flower, I stop to take a picture.

Many seasoned photographers don’t take these photos. They think it’s too easy, that anyone can take them, that it’s not worth wasting film. But I don’t think so. The purpose of photography is not to show how good you are at it, but to have fun and keep the original love of nature alive, at least for me. I don’t create exaggerated perspectives or standard compositions, just keep it as it is. My goal is not to take photos that look like wallpaper, but to take photos that I want to take.

During the process of developing my black and white film, sometimes there are water stains left on the negative. It’s like, everyday life is calm as water, but even a small stone can make it ripple. Life is always full of dangers and even a drop of water can be magnified on film. Water stains can often be wiped away, but I’m still lazy. As long as it doesn’t ruin the picture, I don’t bother cleaning it up. Sometimes laziness is an open-mindedness. The water stains left on the film, I just regard as tattoos.