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VLOG 13

For the cover of my publication, I try with some hand drawing and writing and I  think they look great. I want to create a sense of daily to-do-list, suggesting that 2020 has passed, but it was terrible and the situation for the future is still unknown.

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BLOG 12

Although recreation of the printed photos looks great, but when I placed them with other images, they just jump out and looks strange. And considering the subject is about daily life, maybe it’s better not to use these tricks.

15/12/2020

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BLOG 11

Scanned photos with epoxy resin and recreation.

08/12/2020

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BLOG 10

I found that alchol can dissolve the pigment of the photo and creat unique marks, so i used different senitizer on different photos, and the result was interesting. 

I also used the epoxy resin to make droplet on the photo, it can create the third dimension and make viewer want to touch them, but they know they shouldn’t (we shouldn’t touch our faces or face masks). 

24/11/2020

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BLOG 09

The outcome of the first shooting was great, and compared the digital and analogue photos, I think digital version might be better, the grain and color of analogue version are unsatisfactory. I think I can do some experient with the printed photo, maybe use pigment or alchol to recreate the image.

02/11/2020

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BLOG 08

I decided to start with 4 elements, which are face mask, hand gloves, hand senitizer and protective screens. What I want to express  is not what these elements are neither how they work, I want to show how I feel about them, what feelings they brought me. For example, the face mask makes me feel suffocated and damp, the hand senitizer make me feel purified from the anxiety and guiltwhich came from the crowds and outdoor activities.

I will shot them on both digital and analogue, then decided which would be better for this project. I also used Set a Light 3D to simulate the light and composition.

25/10/2020

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BLOG 07

I tried to print some B&W film by the tradition way in the darkroom, however I dont think B&W is suitable for my project. Color is very important under the COVID-19, the warning signal, the mask, the color of senitizer and even the damp feeling when wearing PPE, I think they are all colored.

12/10/2020

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BLOG 06

I decided to limit my shooting subject to daily life under the epidemic, recreate some new daily elements brought by COVID-19, and show my feelings of living in a new way under the shadow of COVID-19 by photos. Optional materials may include masks, gloves, senitizer, etc. I will experiment further to decide the medium of creation.

20/09/2020

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BLOG 05

Before I started my shooting, I looked to some artists’ work and hoping they can inspired me. The first artist is Viviane Sassen, she is very good at separating everyday elements from the environment. Whether it is contemporary society or primitive tribes, Viviane's capture of Daily life is calm and unique, and gives these elements an alternative fashion sense. 

The second artist is Evelyn Bencicova, her works have a strong religious atmosphere. Her photos are aesthetically continuous and exude eternal desire and poetry. Evelyn constructs a fascinating narrative scene that blurs the line between reality, memory and imagination, that is, "fiction based on facts." Under the disturbing visual language, her works exude a sense of beauty of death.

15/09/2020

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BLOG 04

Before the end of August, my closed friends are about to leave the UK, so I decided to go to Edinburgh to help them move and take a short trip to the Lake District on the way back to London. During the trip, I found many ways of thinking that I hadn't thought of before, and also changed my research direction. During the few days in Edinburgh, I found that the most relaxing moment was when I returned to the hotel to take off my mask. What makes me feel safe most was seeing detergent bubbles on the floor. When I was on a mountain peak in the Lake District where there were few people, a mask left by a climber made my mind clear. When the climber is on an unmanned peak, he knows that the environment is safe, so masks are no longer necessary. I rely on masks from the sense of security that masks can bring. I choose not to do things because doing the opposite in my perception

 02/09/2020

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BLOG 03

I began to think about the source of this anxiety. There is no doubt that the social and physical isolation brought about by COVID-19 has magnified the bad mental state usually hidden by normal life. But why under the circumstance of knowing how to do it is safe and I am safe, insecurities and anxiety still exist, and there is no fundamental improvement due to most methods. 

Generally speaking, insecurity comes from the unknown, such as the unknown about the dark and the unknown about the future. But this logic does not seem to be perfect in the case of COVID-19. The data on the growth of the epidemic is known, the route of disease transmission is also known, and the method of preventing infection is also known. So where does the individual's insecurity come from? 

And there is significant difference between individuals. My friends, mostly Chinese, mostly are still very cautious about participating in social interactions like normal times even with well protection. However, European youths are obviously less concerned about the epidemic. I can see full house restaurants and bars every day by the Thames in the summer evening. What is the reason for the difference? Do Chinese youths know less about COVID-19 then others? 

07/08/2020

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BLOG 02

Shooting street scenes in the sunset is undoubtedly enjoyable, but every time I went out, the sultry heat of the mask and the anxiety when meeting with the crowd would not be concealed. In fact, in the few days after each outing, the joy of completing the creation would rapidly decrease, and the anxiety of going out and passing by strangers would gradually increase. I would question myself whether it is safe for me to do so. After I reviewed the photos taken every time, I realized not all photos are pleasant. Even if the epidemic in the UK has eased this summer, the impact of COVID-19 can still be detected on the streets. 

04/08/2020

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BLOG 01

Learning a new skill is fun but also painful. I realized that one or two months of study will not make me proficient in Cinema 4D, which means that the goal of creating a virtual scene cannot be accomplished. And working in front of the computer for a long time made my anxiety worse. I decided to go out and take pictures, even if just street scenes in Kingston town.I walked into the street on many sunny evenings, hoping that the mild and comfortable summer sun could relieve the long-term pressure caused by COVID-19. Did it help? I think yes, at least for a few days.

 03/08/2020

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Blog. 8

After reviewed the photos I took this time, I found that these photos are full of various elements. They may reflect Redcar in different aspects, but I need to narrow the theme. I looked to some artists’s works and hope they could inspired me. There are lots of empty space in Redcar after many factories were removed, which remind me of land artworks of Robert Smithson and Richard Long, their works reflect on the contradiction between human and nature brought about by industrial civilization, which is undoubtedly helpful for my works, So when I visit Redcar again, I can try to find the traces left on the open space after the disappearance of the industry. Another artist is Mark Power, whose projects PERIPLUS and GOOD MORNING AMERICA are excellent new topographics photography, specific landscapes are stripped from the environment and the concept of time is obscured. I think these alienated landscapes are very suitable for reflecting the predicament of industrial cities.

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Blog 7.

I spent four days in Redcar. This trip is more like a field study. I need to be more familiar with the city to discover the elements that are worth shooting. In four days, I took 50 wide-angle landscape photos with a medium-format camera and nearly 200 relatively microscopic elements with 35mm film. These photos include rundown streets, factories, and beaches, and they can be considered as my first impression of the city.After returning to London to organize the pictures taken this time, I found an interesting element. There are many elements that have disappeared in Redcar and should have disappeared, such as blank billboards, ghost signs which have been left for decades, closed shops without doors and windows.I think these elements are the micro performance of Redcar ’s decline. Unlike the streets and advertisements that change in big cities every day, time and space changes become less obvious in Redcar. I think that documenting these elements can be my main direction of the project. 

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Blog 6.

Based on the exercises during Christmas, I decided to limit the subject to the declining industrial city. There are many former industrial cities in central England, such as Sheffield, Sunderland, Huddersfield. After studying the map and the background of each city, I decided to use Redcar as my first shooting location.In large and medium-sized cities like Sheffield, although heavy industry was once the pillar industry of the city, due to the relatively large population, supporting commercial and service industries will not produce particularly drastic changes after the industrial decline. A large population also means a city The foundation of the transition will be stronger. Redcar owns the Teesside Steel Industry, and the entire Teesside was once an important industrial area. However, after the decline of the steel industry, a small city with only 30,000 people, such as Redcar, will face a large number of people unemployed. Loss of population, business and services will also decline. These characteristics make Redcar more representative.

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Blog 5.

I returned to China during the Christmas, in addition to some portraits, I also filmed an industrial area near my hometown. This area was planned as an economic development area ten years ago, with many high-rise dwellings built and most of them have been sold. However, due to business and employment issues, very few people choose to live here, gradually turning this area into a ghost town. It is confusing that the construction of residential building is still developing rapidly, and construction sites can be seen everywhere.There are many factories and industrial relics in this area, and a small number of villages are distributed around large industries. This so-called economic development zone is actually in a contradictory status. Continuously rising house prices and centralized urban construction make it look like an emerging city, but the development of commerce and industry is stagnating or even declining. The process of urbanization here is fragmented, and the development of architecture does not match the development of urban residents. I am very fascinated by these absurd and charming landscapes.