Photo Journal Monday: Wen-Han Chang
© Wen-Han Chang
All images and text by Wen-Han Chang
A Space in Mind
Space is omnipresent. It exists not only in the reality but also in the mind. Our conception of “space” derives from the earth we live on from time immemorial. Height is the length from the sky to land, and width is shown by the extent to the horizon. When we view the horizon, it is always very far away like an unknown boundary. Human perception of space is expanded by his life experience.
© Wen-Han Chang
In ancient oriental culture, people believed space was created by a giant named Pangu. In the beginning, the sky and the land were egg-shaped chaos, and Pangu was born from this entity. He was striving to separate the sky from the land for a lifelong time. The breadth between the sky and land where people live is called “space”. Therefore, for the ancient oriental, an upper cap called “sky” and a down base named “ground” composed “space”.
© Wen-Han Chang
However, photography records a three-dimensional space and further develops on a two-dimensional plane. In another word, photographs are a projection from space and something can be lost in this process from three-dimensional space to a two-dimensional plane. Actually, a plane is unable to represent a space completely. Thus, viewers sense the photo and create, build a space in their mind. As a result, for human recognition, the space in the human mind corresponds to the space in reality.
© Wen-Han Chang
In this work, my target is a white screen on which the light is projected, so the photo truthfully records the reality and represents it. The viewers see what they see, but simultaneously they will find that the image is like a space with a horizon where the sky and sea meet. The image of space actually comes from their experience. However, there is no such space in reality corresponding to the space in mind. That is to say, the space that viewers see only exists in the human mind.
In conclusion, what the viewers discover from a photo is simply a reflection of their thought. We, the generation of science and technology, are very similar to the ancient oriental people who believed in the legend of Pangu because we all live in the space we believe in.
© Wen-Han Chang
