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I regard my own artistic exploration as an ongoing act of critical inquiry into philosophy and the self, using art as a platform and visual arts as a medium to constantly examine both my self and my id. This journey began with Sartre’s existentialism(Sartre et al., 2007), which situates the question of “Who am I?” at the starting point of art, prompting an exploration of the significance of surrounding things and environments for myself. In this sense, creating art becomes a process of life rather than an end in itself. Similar to Robert Frank’s The Americans, in which he captures a scene from inside a hotel looking out the window—where the window becomes a mirror—the act of looking outward also entails self-examination. This outward-to-inward gaze resonates with my own practice: the external objects I photograph represent my thoughts, while this mode of seeing establishes a connection with the material world. Photography allows me to experience matter through contemplation, which in turn permits me to view myself through the lens of matter.

In this dossier, I treat art as a continuous practice of self-critique and philosophical inquiry. My work revolves around three themes: seeing, materiality, and existence. The artists I select: Gerry Johansson, Daido Moriyama, and Hiroshi Sugimoto et—explore in different ways of the tension between subjectivity and the material world. In terms of critical framework, I primarily draw on phenomenology and new materialism. Jane Bennett(2010)’s concept of “vibrant matter” allows me to reconsider the agency of photographic subjects, understanding images not as passive representations but as material events that participate in the creation of meaning. Through these theoretical lenses, my dossier attempts to connect personal experiences of existence with broader philosophical and ecological concerns, ultimately transforming artistic practice into a critical inquiry into existence itself.

Sartre, J.-P., Macomber, C., Cohen-Solal, A., & Elkaïm-Sartre, A. (2007). Existentialism Is a Humanism (JOHN KULKA, Ed.; 1st ed.). Yale University Press.

Bennett, J. (2010). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press.

Note:

For this annotation, I used AI for translate simplified Chinese to English.

Open AI. (2025). Chat GPT(Oct 23 Version) [Large Language Model].

ChatGPT - Art as self-critique

A conversational AI system that listens, learns, and challenges

[jiesenc]

Stephen Shore

Marland Street, Hobbs, New Mexico, February 19, 1975, Chromogenic color print, 50.8 x 61 cm. In Uncommon Places.

Stephen Shore's creative approach is deeply influenced by American society, culture, and the philosophy of visual experience. His work is not only about what to see, but also about how to see. In the 1970s, he pioneered the introduction of color photography into the realm of serious art, breaking with the tradition of black-and-white documentary photography and advocating that photography, like language, possess its own structure and grammar. Shore focuses on the everyday and the mundane: motels, restaurants, street corners, gas stations. These seemingly uninteresting scenes are imbued with aesthetic and philosophical weight through his lens. Through rigorous composition, nuances of natural light, and precise color perception, he transforms photography into a record of consciousness, a dispassionate practice of seeing. He believes that photography is not a reproduction of reality, but a presentation of the seeing process itself. The photographer's role is not to create drama, but to reveal the relationship between seeing and being. Philosophically, Shore's work is closely connected to phenomenology and Merleau Ponty's philosophy of perception. He believes that seeing itself is a way of being, both an experience and a process of interaction between the individual and the world. In Uncommon Places and American Surfaces, the empty cityscapes and meaningless arrangements of objects constitute a visual reflection on modern experience: they reveal how urbanization, mobility, and consumerism shape our perceptions. Shore shifted photography from mere representation to an exploration of the mechanisms of perception, making viewers aware of their own viewing habits and thereby reconsidering the relationship between vision, memory, and existence. While he was not the first artist to incorporate philosophical reflection into photography, he was the first to make philosophy central to his language. He no longer used photography to narrate the world, but to interrogate how viewing generates meaning. In this way, Shore transformed photography into an epistemological laboratory, a means of studying how humans construct reality through visual experience. His work elevates photography from a medium of social record to an existential inquiry, elevating visual experience itself to a philosophical level.

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Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey, 1955, 23.1 × 34.2 cm

View from Hotel Window, Butte, Montana, 1956, Gelatin silver print, 23.1 × 34.2 cm

Frank's photographic philosophy centers on observing the essence of real life and presenting the authentic feelings of society and culture through a personal perspective. He opposes the idealization and decorativeness of traditional documentary photography, emphasizing the use of photography to capture the imperfections, chance encounters, and fleeting emotions of everyday life. His signature work, The Americans, documents the diversity, class differences, and implicit loneliness of American society through extended travels. Frank emphasizes subjective feelings and personal observation in his photography, using tilted compositions, unconventional framing, and serendipitous moments to imbue his images with a strong visual rhythm and psychological tension. For him photography is a means of projecting inner thoughts and observing society, becoming a medium through which personal experience intersects with the social environment. In his work, ordinary streets, hotel windows, and street corner moments can all become opportunities for self-reflection. For example, in The Americans, he photographed from a hotel window, gazing out upon a declining coal mining town. His visit as a tourist, upon seeing the dilapidated scene, sparked questions about his own destiny in America. The window also serves as a mirror, reflecting not only the external world but also the photographer's own gaze and psychological state. This way of observing from the outside in, and his sensitive capture of the details of daily life, has enabled his photography to establish a unique connection between social documentary and personal philosophy, emphasizing that photography is both a tool for recording the world and a medium for exploring individual existence and identity.

Frank's success in The Americans lies in his filming techniques, the social issues he addresses, and the narrative and metaphors he employs throughout the book, all of which break new ground in documentary photography. Using a handheld camera for street and travel photography, Frank's tilted compositions, serendipitous moments, and high-contrast black-and-white images defy the traditional pursuit of clarity and idealization in documentary photography, imbuing his images with a sense of presence and psychological depth. He focuses on class disparities, racial issues, consumer culture, and the loneliness and alienation of modern American society. Through details like street figures, hotel windows, and the shadows of cars, he transforms social phenomena into metaphors for individual psychology and existential states. The book is structured around a journey across the United States, connecting social landscapes from coast to coast, forming a fluid and cohesive visual narrative. Each image serves as both a self-contained record and a storytelling medium across the canvas. While Frank's photography captures social realities, it also reflects personal experiences through external scenes, interweaving social observation with self-perception to create a dual narrative that combines social critique with psychological depth. This combination of technological innovation, profound themes, and narrative metaphors makes The Americans not only a milestone in documentary photography, but also a classic text for understanding modern society and individual existence.

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Qingjun Huang

Family Stuff, Inner Mongolia, 2007

Huang's artistic philosophy centers on exploring individual identity and social structure through the representation of material and space, focusing particularly on the existence of ordinary families amidst social change. His signature "Family Possessions" series involves asking families to bring all their belongings to their doorsteps or open spaces, arrange them neatly, and then photograph them, transforming the intimate materiality of everyday life into a visual record. This approach not only reveals families' lifestyles and material circumstances but also reflects the influence of social, economic, and cultural contexts on individual and family identities. In his photographs taken in Inner Mongolia, this arrangement creates a stark contrast with the natural environment, dramatically highlighting the presence of material objects and allowing viewers to perceive the constraints and shaping of individuals through space, geography, and culture. His photography is not merely a visual presentation but also a sociological and philosophical observation: each object and arrangement carries traces of family history, life choices, and identity. Through this "object-to-person" approach, Huang invites viewers to examine the external world while also considering the individual's position and significance within the social system. His works emphasize the dynamism and symbolism of matter, believing that household items are not only necessities of life, but also carriers of culture, memory and self-identity, thus making photography a philosophical practice to explore the relationship between individual existence and society.

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Masahisa Fukase

Erimo Cape, 1976, from the series Solitude of Ravens, 1976, Gelatin silver print, 78 x 53.3 cm

Fukase's photographic philosophy lies in a profound exploration of self, loneliness, and the inner world. Through imagery, he materializes personal emotions, memories, and existential experiences into visual symbols. Fukase's work is imbued with intimacy and psychological projection. In particular, in his Ravens, he uses the symbol of the raven to capture loneliness, mortality, and inner anxiety, closely interweaving external scenes with his own psyche to create a poignant and profound sense of existence. His creative process embodies a philosophical reflection on the nature of photography: photography is not merely a record of reality, but a medium that interacts with personal experience, perception, and emotion, with each image carrying the subject's psychological space. Fukase tends to use repetitive, localized shots and high-contrast black and white images to amplify the emotional tension of details, making objects or animals not just subjects but reflections of one's inner feelings. His work emphasizes the dynamic and participatory nature of photography: images are both a representation of reality and a psychological and philosophical projection, allowing viewers to experience loneliness, vulnerability, and the complexity of existence through viewing. In this sense, Fukase's philosophy of photography is connected with phenomenology and psychoanalysis: he explores subjectivity through the presentation of matter, examines his inner world by gazing at external objects, and transforms his photographic practice into a continuous inquiry into his own existence and philosophical contemplation.

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Gerry Johansson, Medina de Campo, Spain, 2019, printed in 2021, silver gelatin print, 17 x 16,6 cm

The core of Johansson's photographic philosophy lies in documenting the world from a calm, objective, and neutral perspective. He rarely intervenes in his subjects, nor does he pursue narrative or emotional expression, instead focusing on the inherent value of everyday scenes. His works often employ minimalist compositions and strict geometric order. Whether depicting architecture, street scenes, or landscapes, they all exhibit a balanced, silent, and restrained aesthetic, allowing the viewer to directly perceive the space and structure within the image, rather than being drawn into plot or story. Johansson emphasizes the neutrality of photography, allowing the presence of time and space to flow naturally. His scenes often lack obvious traces of human activity or emotion, thus reinforcing the philosophical meaning of the physical space itself. During his long journeys around the world, he uses a consistent perspective to document scenes from diverse cultures and regions, from Japan to Northern Europe, from the United States to the Middle East. He seeks to capture both the commonalities and differences of the world, imbuing seemingly ordinary images with a sense of order, loneliness, and presence. His photography is not only a visual record but also a philosophical meditation. Through simple images and a silent atmosphere, he guides viewers to experience the flow of time, the vastness of space, and the essence of the world in the ordinary.

Johansson documents everyday scenes in a calm, objective, and non-interventional manner, emphasizing the presence of space and material. This neutrality offers the viewer the possibility of self-reflection. In my work, photographing objects outside of me is not merely an observation of the environment but also a self-examination from the outside in, with material objects becoming a medium for understanding my own thoughts and existence. Johansson's minimalist compositions, geometric order, and silent atmosphere imbue ordinary scenes with a sense of order and philosophy, which resonates with my approach of establishing a connection between myself and the material world through contemplation and photography. His work embodies the potential of photography as a philosophical practice: it not only presents the world but also allows the viewer to experience the essence of time, space, and existence through viewing. This resonates with my own practice of connecting personal existential experience with broader philosophical issues, drawing on theories of phenomenology and new materialism.

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Daido Mariyama

Stray Dog, Amori, Japan, 1971, Silver Gelatin Print, 45.72 x 55.88 cm

Daido Moriyama's photographic style was formed amidst the intense urbanization and cultural chaos of postwar Japan. He initially studied imagery under the tutelage of advertising photographer Takeji Iwamiya and photographer Eikoh Hosoe, and was deeply influenced by American photographers William Klein and Robert Frank. Moriyama saw in them the rebellious spirit of photography, an approach that sought not to achieve perfect composition but to reveal social truths and emotional tensions through imagery. This anti-formalist aesthetic became the core of his style.

In the 1960s and 1970s, he joined the "Provoke" photography movement, collaborating with Takuma Nakahira and Takahiko Okada on the "Provocative Language of Photography." Rejecting the objectivity of photojournalism and the cool visuals of modernism, they advocated that photography should reveal the instability of perception and the cracks in reality through subjectivity, blur, and roughness. Moriyama took this philosophy to its extreme, developing his renowned "are, bure, boke" style. His images often feature high contrast and out-of-focus, allowing viewers to experience the energy and anxiety of the streets amidst chaos and intense visual impact. This style is not simply a visual effect, but a philosophical gesture. By rejecting clarity and rationality, Moriyama questions modern society's obsession with control, order, and representation. His photography becomes an embodied experience, recording a direct encounter with the world and a momentary sense of presence. As he put it, "I photograph because I cannot help but photograph." This primal response to reality forms the spiritual core of his photographic language and makes Moriyama's work unique in the global history of photography: a record of personal perception and a continuous questioning of the modern state of being. Moriyama's photographic language resonates strongly with my own artistic explorations. His work rejects clarity and certainty, embracing blur, motion, and grain. This visual instability aligns with my ongoing critique of self and existence. Moriyama's "are, bure, boke" is an ontological stance: it acknowledges the world's chaotic, unstable, and uncontrollable nature. This stance has also influenced my approach to seeing in my work. I no longer seek to present a rationally organized world, but rather to experience the vitality of matter and its interaction with me through gaze and intervention. In this sense, Moriyama's work has helped me understand that photography is not simply a record of reality, but a way of participating in it; that seeing is not a matter of establishing distance, but a practice of coexistence. His photography has reawakened my understanding that images are not simply an extension of my thoughts, but also the world's way of seeing me.

Stray Dog is one of his most iconic works and is considered a highly symbolic image in postwar Japanese photography. In it, a black stray dog ​​stands on the street, alert, isolated, and powerful. Moriyama does not attempt to assign a clear narrative meaning to the image. Instead, through the image's intense light and shadow and rough texture, the dog becomes a metaphor for modern urban existence.

In Moriyama's photographic philosophy, he emphasizes the predatory and serendipitous nature of photography, believing that the essence of an image lies in momentary intuition and bodily reaction, rather than the rational control of composition. Stray Dog embodies this spirit of primal seeing, a way of existing between order and chaos. Through his camera's direct encounter with the streets, Moriyama reveals the wildness and loneliness of the city, reflecting his reflections on the relationship between self and society. He believes photography is "a way of clashing with the world," and in that moment, the camera becomes an extension of perception and existence. Through Stray Dog, Moriyama transforms photography from a tool for reproducing reality into a record of sensory experience, making viewing an act of dialogue with the city, the body, and time.

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Hiroshi Sugimoto

Trylon, New York, 1977, gelatin silver print, 48.6 x 59.4 cm, edition of 25

“Rather than the camera projecting the outside world onto film, I am using it to project outward the world that exists inside me.”---- HIROSHI SUGIMOTO

At the core of Sugimoto's artistic philosophy lies a profound reflection on time, existence, and eternity. Through photography, he explores the boundaries between reality and illusion, using images as materialized vehicles of memory and consciousness. Representative works such as his "Seascapes" series convey a sense of timelessness through simple contrasts of sea and sky, while his "Theaters" series utilizes long exposures to freeze cinematic light and shadow into a static, surreal existence. Deeply influenced by Zen Buddhism, philosophy, and science, Sugimoto's work pursues minimalist forms to reveal the underlying philosophical principles, allowing viewers to silently perceive the flow of time, history, and the universe. He emphasizes that art is not merely about expression but about creating a space for dialogue between the viewer and the work. Through blank spaces and meditative rhythms, he guides us to confront the essence of existence and its infinite possibilities.

Sugimoto's Theaters artistic practice revolves around the metaphysical conditions of time, perception, and viewing. His Theaters series, begun in the 1970s, condenses the film's entire image into a pure field of white light through a single, long exposure over the entire duration of a film's run. In this way, Sugimoto freezes time into a still moment, transforming the previously continuous experience of viewing into a meditation on duration and memory. His work invites viewers to confront the paradox of photography: the image both preserves and erases time. As he puts it, photography is a "fossilization of the moment." In this process, light ceases to be a mere medium and becomes an object of contemplation and a symbol of existence. By reducing the image's "representational nature" to pure light, Sugimoto elevates photography into a meditation on existence, making viewing itself a perceptual and spiritual experience.