Honourable Mention

Dream Series No.2, namely, Forest Mist has been awarded in Monochrome Photography Awards 2021 with Honorable Mention in Amateur Photomanipulation category.

Original Series

Dream, No.1, 4” x 5” B&W film, 2020, digitally scanned:

Dream, No.2, 4” x5” B&W film, 2020, digitally scanned:

Dream, No.3, 4” x5” B&W film, 2020, digitally scanned:

Additional Works (Practice)

Contact Sheets

Artist Statement

Do you feel your subconsciousness is sometimes leading you to a world that you never even dare to imagine? Do you feel your dreams sometimes are way too horrible than the reality? Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis or sleepwalking? I bet at least once your answer is “Yes”. I always dream, and most of my dreams were fantasies. I am not even scared, but I am really into the indescribable way of how those “impossible possibilities” just happened in my dreams. I cannot see anything clearly in my dreams, while I do exquisitely feel the existence and the chaos of it. I believe what I can “see” in those dreams depends on my subconsciousness, which to some extent I am always trying hard to hide when I am awake.

Therefore, with this project of photography, I am trying to release my subconsciousness a little bit, restore the scenarios that I have dreamed, and show you those images with sincerity. As a result, I named this series “Dream”. More than once, I dreamed I could fall into the abyss or walk into another dimension when I was just passing through the hallway as usual; more than once, I dreamed I was lost in an unfamiliar forest without anything accompanying me but darkness and eerie light intertwining and flickering; more than once, I dreamed I stood on the middle of the road, I was about to die because a car was crashing into me at high speed...for those moments, I only remember glittering, fragmented and overlapping images. I cannot even make up a complete image or a storyline out of them. Is this not exciting?

Each of the series is of double or more exposures. I made the lighting effects by capturing the light and shadow on the white wall on the first exposure of each film separately. I took advantage of an LED headlight, three crystal prisms in different shapes, and my specially measured lighting angles to capture the lighting effects cast on the wall of my apartment. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I could only take a journey around where I live, so one midnight I decided to go “sleepwalking” from my unit hallway to the nearest road. I do not even remember if I was awake during the entire process, it felt more like an adventure. I cannot even tell if I was really “dreaming” sometime. Nonetheless, the results turned out to be enjoyable — I documented my dreams in reality.

Critical Reflection

Click here to read and download the critical reflection essay for "Dream"