INTRODUCING MY EYES ARE UNCLEAR
Capturing the Right Angle
ABOUT
My Own Eyes are Unclear
Whenever I sit on the train, at a moment when my own eyes are unclear, the scenery captured from the train window is the city that people ignore.
The train runs at a high speed every day, whether it is on ordinary days, people waiting at the platform, couples walking on the street, a family chatting in the sun on the balcony, children playing on the grass, or now in this special period, where everything becomes empty, most people are wearing the face masks. A scene of ordinary everyday images, between the speed of flow, presents an eternal but seeming momentary situation.
Taking the train to know the face of a city is most efficient way for a foreigner when he/she adapt to a new living environment. As an outsider person of this city, through the train window, we can easily find that every moment is the image to show the layer of London. However, for the local people, that is the familiar and unfamiliar environment of their daily life, which is ignored for a long time. No one has stopped in a hurry to get to know the city from this angle.
This small train’s glass window is like a layer of obstacles, which hinders people from admiring the city and cuts off the intimacy between people and the city. Therefore, this series photo using the train window as a medium, through two angles (from outside to inside & from inside to outside view) to show the city’s momentary layer.
HOW IT ALL BEGAN
Reference
In December 2018, the Getty Museum in Los Angeles launched an exhibition
based on an exciting insight: photography from the beginning regard windows as a symbol of photography vision. I got an inspiration from it. Photography is like a window. Through the small view/lens, the photographer's perspective can convey all kinds of pictures and their different interpretations of the world. So for my project, I want to use the window as a medium, use its frame to shoot a series of static city images with high shutter speed on the moving train.
Windows are often used as a visual metaphor to separate people from this social environment. It was this sense of fragmentation that gave me the idea of shooting this work. For example, on the train, there are always hurrying passers- by inside. And outside the train, through the train window, we can find it is the familiar and unfamiliar environment of our daily life, but no one has stopped in a hurry to get to know the city from this angle.
Masuda Takahiro’s 《NOZOMI》
This collection of photographs shows a wealth of “instant scenery” and greatly updates the thoughts and techniques of documentary photography in the past. The Japanese photographer Masuda travel between Osaka and Hiroshima every day due to work. Due to the fast speed of the train, it is difficult for the eyes to clearly capture the instant scene outside the train window, and the scenery shot from the Shinkansen window is all moving. These neglected appearances clearly reflect the cross-sectional view of “modern Japan”, which is a distant view of the other side.
Ed Ruscha’s 《Twentysix Gasoline Stations》
Rusa said in an interview, “I have driven back to Oklahoma City four or five times in a year. I found many deserted areas between Los Angeles and Oklahoma. I think someone should take this news. Take it back to the city, get the news in a simple and direct way, and bring it back at the same time. I think one of the best ways is to tell the facts that exist there. I don’t want that kind of fable or mystery.”
Giorgio Barrera 《Through the Window》
Giorgio Barrera is an Italian photographer. He photographed a group of artistic photography works called "Through the Window", which is an artistic expression between abstract and concrete. On the one hand, it gives people a certain sense of the scene of life, on the other hand, it creates a scene that is deliberately "stiff" to express the sense of surrealism outside the picture.
Michael wolf 《后窗观察》(window watching)
German photographer Michael Wolf, who lives in Hong Kong, has a different perspective to see the sociaty. He photographs people living in the modern city through the window and observes what people are doing and thinking when they return home. This group of works named “window watching”, showed audience the life of “neighbors”.
Bruce Davidson 《SUBWAY》
Bruce Davidson's vivid exploration of New York's subway system in the 1980s is an epoch-defining series that marked the photographer's shift from black and white to color. He and his wife, both survivors of Dachau, worked together in their small religious bookstore. Returning from his shop during the evening rush hour, he would see the packed cars of the subway as cattle cars, filled with people, each face staring or withdrawn with the fear of its unknown destiny.
Michael Wolf- 《Tokyo Compression》
His latest pictures have also been created in a big city: Tokyo. But this time Tokyo’s architecture is not the topic. Michael Wolf’s Tokyo Compression focuses on the craziness of Tokyo’s underground system. For his shots, he has chosen a location which relentlessly provides his camera with new pictures minute by minute.