I can’t live without a city. I’ve been living in cities since I was born. My lifestyle and habits are all connected to a city.
When I started photography class, the only subject that I was drawn to was the street. Whatever the assignment — luminosity, modernism, film tests — I always did them in the street. This readily available, convenient "studio" always resulted in the best photos that surpassed my imagination.
I like how Daido Moriyama says, "Cities are enormous bodies of people’s desires. Everyone has desires [...] that desire is always serious and real. Photography is an expression of those desires."
Before I go out and take photos, I pray to God to lead me and give me a direction. When I am on the street, I think about nothing and observe everything. I am always uncertain what I will get. Some days I become extremely happy because I have a great photo on one roll; some days I feel defeated after developing several rolls of films. Some days I look at one image and hate it; some days I look at the same image and can see the beauty. It's crazy and fun. I have never seen a city like this before. Street Photography opens my senses.
I like how Robert Frank writes, "To produce an authentic contemporary document, the visual impact should be such as will nullify explanation."
At one point, I wanted to insist on creating narratives about the subjects and scenes in my photographs because I am a control freak. However, I learned an important lesson from Street photography. Things don't have to have only one meaning. When I went out and took photos, I didn't have a vision or topic in mind. I was just reacting to things happening on the street, and I saw "something" in the scene that might have connected with my desires or memories or whatever. But my photos need no further statement because they connected with me first without any context, and it's not fair for me to impose anything onto them. All I'm hoping is these "slices of time" can connect with the viewers in the way they connected with me.