Burnt | Jun 2019 - Jan 2020
“Burnt” is a photo diary recording the social unrest of Hong Kong in 2019. All photos are taken with first frame of the roll of 35mm film camera.
In these longstanding anti-government protests, there was one instance caught my attention - photo of a girl whose one eye was shot and injured during a street conflict between the protestors and police. The vivid image of her eye injury only reveals a partial truth, the result but not the cause. There has been also many news circulated around that no one can possibly follow or digest. None can really tell if news is whole truth or “fact-ional”.
The making of the “Burnt” photos is both mechanical and chemical. When the film being pulled out to load into the camera, the first few inches of the roll is burnt by light exposure, which part cannot capture any image. As such, many photographers would sacrifice the first photo for it is not a perfect one. However, I find it dynamic to have scar line dividing the photo into two parts, making it photo partly seen and partly unseen, presenting only some truth of the reality. There is always uncertainty in the reality.
-WWH
