LIFE ORDINARY
 

This series is about my journey to find the pristine beauty of nature—a place where humanity is a part of, rather than apart from, seeking dominion over it.

I seek the serene beauty and romanticism of nature.

I'm not the first to evoke and explore the beauty of nature, certainly not the last, nor particularly unique in my depiction.

I am simply a person living in a time that people call "modern." Comfort and convenience have separated us completely from nature. I feel suffocated. I long to see a drop of morning dew on a leaf, the splendid redness of the setting sun, watch the passage of time on the fading petals, and enjoy the brightness of stars against the dark sky.

All creatures are created equal. But are we really equal to other creatures on this rock?

We, humans, tear down mountains, poison rivers, destroy habitats, wiping out entire species. We set ourselves above and apart from nature to exploit it, and in our selfishness and greed, we modern people are ever lonely.

The works in this series, titled "Life Ordinary," are my grief for the loss of the natural world, our collective loss. There is much evidence in literature, poetry, and architecture that celebrate the majesty of nature and our place within it.

Now, we have nothing but pollution, ugly high rises, barren fields, and diseased herds. Nature was beautiful, and we made it pitiful. It would be tragic if we only knew the beauty of nature through recorded images of the past.

I especially like the passage in Fukuoka's "The One-Straw Revolution":

"Snake bites frog ... hawk hunts snake. Wolf attacks hawk. One person kills the wolf, and later succumbs to tuberculosis. Bacteria grow in the human corpse and the grass thrives on nutrients from bacterial activity. Insects attack plants and frogs feed on insects.”

Humans are just a part of the natural cycle of life. Going against nature will only lead to self-destruction.

I choose images from nature and arrange them according to the law of survival. All living beings are wrestling with life and death. As the bird lies decaying in the field, covered in flies, corn stalks withering desolately with only the echo of the waterfowl in the emptiness. Even the comfortable herd struggles with nature for survival.

I am recording a heroic epic about the death of all life. I hope that after death, life returns as ordinary.