Dark Specimen
According to the myths of Cthulhu created by Cosmicism writer H.P. Lovecraft, the lost ancient gods originate from the unknown sea, outer space and the stars beyond. A century after the creation of these myths, the sea and the outer space are still mysteries to us today. Our fantasy and fear of the unknown is, as Lovecraft says:
“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu
In these “astronomical photographs” consisting of meaningless things in real life exist a fictional world that I establish together with the viewers. It is both the outer space and the sea. Here, objective scientific facts seem to be no longer important.
The “specimen” found here represents a collective of meaningless objects that emit stench and inspire disgust; no one cares to explore the form of their existence. The flattened bio-residues and discarded inorganic objects co-exist in this space, cruel and strange, just like those deformed biological specimen discovered by the scientists in Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness.
The camera is like the black hole in outer space, greedily devouring everything, expanding and vomiting, leaving behind myriad residue. And as a photographer, I am like the crazy scientist in the story, trying to piece together various clues from the residue generated by “photography.”
There is absolute randomness and possibility in this two-dimensional space where time is suspended. What can one expect to find in it?
More about the project
Dark sand, Dark landscape
Hac Sa (Black Sand) Beach in Macau, deposited of natural fine black sand, was originally a natural scenery worthy of Macau’s pride. In recent years, the beach has been much reduced due to environmental damage, and the original black sand has been covered artificially by yellow sand taken from some other places. At the same time, a large amount of artificial waste floating in from the sea has gradually destroyed the original appearance of the beach, making the black sand beach a real garbage dump.
Facing the all-black ocean, I can feel a kind of insignificance and fear of the unknown. When I was alone taking pictures on the sand, I accidentally discovered that the black sand absorbed the light from the camera flash, leaving behind the artificial yellow sand and deposits. These images are unexpectedly similar to astronomical photographs: the stones washed by the sea are like meteors in the sky, and the garbage and dead marine life seem to overlap with Lovecraft’s cosmic horror stories.
In the process, I gradually forgot that I was taking pictures of beaches instead of astronomical photographs. Each photograph of black sand turned into a horror science fiction image full of chaos and disgusting things. This is not a beach, nor the outer space. It is a black landscape photograph created by my subjective fantasy, the sea and outer space.