These are pictures I took in my parents’ house in Shanghai from 2021 to 2023.

The house was the place I called home since the age of 18, the year where I moved in then moved out for study in France. For 7 years, I came back to it from time to time.

I knew I’d leave this house for good. So I started this photography project.
Here’s the conclusion of the project as I’ve officially moved out.


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For I knew all along
that I would make my departure.

Dark, and darker it becomes.
Intimate, thick with the air of intimacy.

Somehow, someway
please,
(right now please!)
WHY BOTHER?

If someone asks
(and they really should not)
then tell them / about the something in the air,
tell them about the tall dark empty hall at 3AM,
tell them about the one being by the window, towards the yard
and the other one by the bed, away from dreams.

To come back just for leaving again.
To all the come-backs,
and the never-come-backs. 

The habit of brewing the potential and the decision to leave,
the habit of not owning,
not knowing,
and the habit of goodbyes,
it’s just like the habit of recognizing the bright sun,
like bowing to the middle of the night,
and secretly rejoicing the lightning storm in a summer afternoon.

There you have it,
(as I have it)
l’enfermement.





 
read more behind the title
of the project