ASERICAN
Wang YiShu
IP: Where do you live?
WYS: I live in Wuzhen, Zhejiang, and I am closer to Shanghai. I was born in Gansu and lived in Guangzhou for more than ten years.
IP: How did you start taking pictures?
WYS: I went to college and started to like photography. I have been a photojournalist for more than ten years, but I like photography as an art since college. Art photography is really interesting to me.
IP: How do you define your photography?
WYS: My photography is my watch. My work is self-centered and record my views on the world. I pay more attention to the unclear, abstract part of the real world, not just the recorded reality.
IP: How does travel affect your work?
WYS: Travel is a reason for my photography, but it is not the result. I have been to many places, but I don't care if personal works record these places exactly, or even deliberately avoid the tourist landscape. I kept taking pictures when I was not traveling.
IP: Some of your images will give you a sense of alienation or discomfort. Why are you attracted to this theme, how did you achieve it?
WYS: I think there will be a lot of uncomfortable places in the real world. I just point them out, but sometimes the image itself is a kind of fabrication, and photography is not the same as reality.
IP: Your series Return seems to be most concerned with individuals. What attracted you to the attention to the topic in your photo?
WYS: Yes, I was young at the time of the early works, and I had a lot of specific views on the world, and I had direct observations about people. At that time I liked the writer Kafka, he was great.
IP: In No borders there are no obvious visual motifs. How did you combine them as a series?
WYS: Now I take pictures more relaxed. I think my perspective can be a theme. It represents a kind of mental state. I think that good photography should not be so clear and easy to understand. It is worth looking at again.
IP: Tradition and technology in the context of China's economic growth also seem to be a recurring theme. What do you think your series says about China today?
WYS: We live in this environment and inevitably react to some realities, but my reaction is not so direct now. My early work was a more related to my photojournalist work, but now I am no longer a journalist. I work for myself. I think reality is a kind of background for photography, but photos must transcend reality and point to the spiritual world.
IP: What do you want the audience to take away from your work?
WYS: The charm of photography itself, photography is a beautiful artistic language. But at the same time there are opinions and experiences beyond reality.