APSP18 Huazhou Liu Undefined Territories

un·defined territories AP SP18

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Huazhou Liu

AP SP18 Critic: Prof. Erieta Attali Student: Huazhou Liu // hl2988

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Proj Essay “There are no fixtures in nature. The universe is fluid and volatile.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

The relationships between photography and time are manifold - the multifaceted

never diminishes its presence. Therefore, the territory seems a desolation - where

images is the illusion of timelessness. The purpose of the dialectical series is to

dimensions of the notion of time grants various ways of capturing time. My interests

human inhabit does not reflect the totality of its context, nor does it have control over

allows for a dynamic perception of architecture - one that is unfixed – a temporary

stemmed from exploring the time-based medium as “slices of time”. The urban

the landscape.

occupant of nature.

environment is in constant juxtaposition of timelessness and temporality. The

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purpose of the construction is to allow temporal events materialized in the symbolic

The photographic project then tries to bring the solitary architecture and the

To complete the project in terms of typology, tonality, and scale, part of the photo

function of the structure itself. The constructed structure itself, on the other hand, is

occupants of the city together. It focuses on establishing harmony in the settlement

selection presents a variety of landscape in New York city – a city not so often

often executed as a temporary act. As the space and people surrounding the urban

of both human and structure in the urban environment, using photograph as a

associated with its natural landscape. When shooting a vast amount of elements

structure alter, there’s an essence embedded within that renders persistent. The

reflection on human beings’ inhabitation - their control, and power over the civilized

in field, the difference between the eyes and the camera lens becomes clear: the

urban construct expresses temporality through orchestrating conversations between

landscape. The shadows and reflections characteristic of the photographs are the

eyes and the brain are naturally capable of filtering the most alluring elements

the change, and the unchanged.

elements that frame a composition indexical of the sublime as a reminder of our own

that we find appealing; yet the camera cannot, thus it requires the photographer

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human limitations. The objective was to record extremely commercialized spaces

to spend plenty of time finding different vantage points, imagining how the scene

One might call it the busiest city that never sleeps, one might call it the city

abstracted, anonymous, and interchangeable.

would look in different kinds of light etc. As such, landscape sets its own rules for

of loneliness; One thing for sure is that NYC is in constant change of state, from

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architectural encroachment. A fully aware architect may draw inspiration from this

congestion to void, joy to desolation. Just like Mark Twain’s remark on New York City:

In the latter half of the semester comes a critical moment at which I discovered my

imposing relationship and translate it into a tribute to the landscape. Given the

a splendid desert—a domed and steepled solitude, where the stranger is lonely in the

ability to inaugurate conversations between the photographed subjects. This series

context of the body of work being about NYC, it’s simultaneously crucial to reflect on

midst of a million of his race. We’d see these people walking in all these different ways

usually involves careful composition of the background and the foreground, creating

the relationship between the landscape and the cityscape. The best photos are the

and at different paces, all of a sudden, they’d be synchronized. The next moment,

a correlation not only in scale, but also in character, light, milieu, and time. It has

ones that communicate the photographer’s connection to the scene, and initiates

they’d be gone, minding their own business. The patterns of people’s movements,

been, admittedly, particularly challenging yet rewarding at the same time to avoid

conversations between the protagonist and the interpreter.

encounters, and rest, recurrently negotiating with natural cycles and architectural

making images that are merely documentary – while it’s important to delineate the

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patterns, merge into expressive bundles of rhythms which give a place its temporal

subjects in all honesty, the photographer’s own voice must also be heard through his

In hindsight, the city and man were never in perfect synchronization; while the former

distinctiveness. By photographing the darkscape’s disassociation with its complex

or her work.

is affiliated to various sensibilities, it isn’t defined by its habitants, not even with the

characteristics, the boundary of human interaction with the land blurs and fades into

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help of a conscious camera. Perhaps the territory is better left, after all, undefined.

the abyss. The value resides in moments in the city in which: voids are exposed to the

My perspective always varies with my position and distance in relation to the subject,

camera and loneness manifests. Absence of any profound identity for its existence

the lighting conditions are constantly changing therefore the silent stillness of the

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