Blog 6: Statement of Intent

The message I aim to convey through my street photography is the exploration of China’s heritage through the lens of its street storefronts, especially focusing on the traditional food stores that continue to shape daily life. By capturing moments of old architecture that eventually became street markets with the hands that prepare time-honored recipes, it celebrates the tradition and the connection of the generations. Moreover, focusing on the lines formed by narrow alleyways and stores that shows perfect symmetry, with normal viewpoint,  it really creates the daily and natural mood as that’s what we observe in our real life, too. The main colors of warm, muted colors, such as red, brown, and yellow also represents the rich atmosphere of China’s culture. These elements combined to a single photography will create an engaging dynamic composition with the connection between the food and the culture, relating to the Chinese stores as living traditions thats in our daily life.

I got my influence from Alex Webb, a street photographer known for his unique and complex compositions that capture street life with various colors, often focusing on cultural narratives in public spaces. I loved how Webb’s photograph’s have some connection with the culture of where the photo was taken, for example, the “Hot Light/Half-Made Worlds” series, which captures the cultural texture of Caribbean and Central American street life.  Sally Davies, who is known as her amazing frame of capturing various types of stores also influenced me with the idea of symmetry. Her photographs often focuses on framing the stores and the balance of dark and light colors. Her photographs grabbed my mind with how daily storefronts we see everyday can hold deep meanings that touches our mind. With my photographs, I want my viewers to understand and respect the importance of culture in our daily life. While some may think that modernity is the key point that we should focus, I believe that saving the culture and history is the ultimate goal for our world. Having unique symmetry and compositions will help to lead the viewers attention to the overall well-completed photography