Returning Boundaries and Distances to Abstraction | Photographer zawa | ISSUE #18

During high school, zawa spent a year studying in Okinawa, which led him to attend a university in Japan. When did he start feeling discomfort with the boundaries and distances created by words?

Before coming to Japan, he thought his hometown in Taiwan was a familiar sight. However, after spending time in Japan and returning to Taiwan, he found more moments he wanted to capture and made various discoveries. "The two perspectives that become visible because I travel between Taiwan and Japan. The process of rediscovering Japan and Taiwan repeatedly has greatly influenced my creative themes," he reflects.

One of the significant experiences was questioning "Where is the border between Taiwan and Japan?"

"When I was studying in Okinawa, I thought, this is Japan, but it feels closer to my hometown Taiwan than Tokyo. On a clear day, you can see Yonaguni Island from Taiwan's east coast. It's a close distance that you might even cross with a drum can if you tried hard enough. For me, Okinawa was a mysterious place that felt both full of different cultures and close to my hometown," says zawa, recalling his thoughts during his studies.

However, people living in Okinawa are Japanese in the sense that they hold Japanese passports, and it is, of course, Japanese territory. At that time, he realized that the concept of a border is artificially created. Yet, at the same time, he found the possibility that the human emotions regarding the true boundaries and distances between places might not necessarily align with linguistically defined concepts. In reality, the boundaries we perceive might be as immeasurable as the number of human thoughts.

Boundaries not defined by lines, but by individuals. To explore expressions that reclaim specific boundaries back into abstraction, zawa held a photography exhibition this year to express the ambiguity of boundaries.

In the photography exhibition, captions were kept to a minimum to reconsider boundaries and distances. Language is a means to convey things clearly, so minimizing captions affects how the audience perceives the photos. By displaying photos of Taiwan and Japan simultaneously without verbal explanations, visitors can face the photos freely, based solely on visual information, liberated from the boundaries between Taiwan and Japan.

"There was a sense of a kind of empirical experiment in expression, in the sense that I could receive feedback on how the audience views photos with or without words," says zawa. The exhibition was a great learning experience through dialogue with visitors.

"I believe that by continuing to take photos, you can definitely find your unique perspective," says zawa. He recalls an episode when he received a critique from photographer Yozo Fujita, author of "World Heritage Wanderings" and "World", about his photos. "I was advised that it might be better to incorporate the distance and relationship between myself and the subject more into the photos. Indeed, I had a consciousness of drawing a line between myself and the subject, and instead, I wanted to blur that line," he shares his enthusiasm for future creations.

Finally, in a world where globalization seems to have enriched individual personalities, yet only the image of individuality seems to overflow, zawa says he will continue to take photos until he can properly find his unique perspective. We want to keep an eye on the perspectives he captures, living in the ambiguity of boundaries.