APHASIA
[med.] loss the power of speech, or the use of words, while the vocal organs remain intact

“Aphasia” is a body of photographic works which served as a mutable but essential language for me. As an alien coming to this new land, the United States, I struggled with the language barrier as many other immigrants do. My tongue was badly tied when I wanted to voice myself; I have been suffering from the disability to grasp the alien but familiar language system.

Photography offered me the expressive vehicle for my personal responses to lives, landscapes, events and the cities in the new land more than a record of places. For a Chinese-born photographer, a foreigner merging with the alien reality, photography was adapted as a language for daily communication, a substitute for speech, during my transition period from an onlooker who stood outside, to an insider. In the contrast to traditional photography that freezes a certain moment in time and space with the camera, this adapted language reversed this process – it brings still images back to the time stream. Each individual image evokes the narrative of sequential events, stories and emotions.

The project was featured on the 15th Annual Exhibition of Asian American Arts Ceter, New York , NY