Everything happened after my 23rd birthday party, and as I made my way home after celebrating with friends, I encountered an experience that truly altered me and prompted the initiation of this project – I witnessed firsthand my beloved city, Philadelphia, undergo a profound transformation due to societal ruptures.
People were graffitiing "Fuck 12" on the streets, storefronts and bank windows were smashed, fires burned on the roadsides, police cars clashed with crowds, and amidst the chaos, there was a constant outpouring of fear and anger.
It was as if Pandora's Box had been opened. As an artist hailing from a relatively socially stable, ethnically homogeneous country, the role I had long played in American society was singular - that of a foreign observer.
This privilege was not merely material but also in terms of perspective and experience, distancing me from many injustices and conflicts within society. Large-scale social movements and protests were unimaginable scenes for me, let alone their underlying reasons. However, as I stood on the streets, watching young African American boys asking police officers of the same ethnicity, "How do you feel?!" The emotional impact forced me to pick up my camera and begin documenting everything I saw.
As events escalated, I repeatedly ventured out of the confines of my home to document one protest after another. The BLM movement, the killing of Walter Wallace Jr, the showdown between Biden and Trump - residents of Philadelphia gathering time and again on the streets, raising their voices in the eye of the storm- I had no other choice but to wield my camera. I began to realize the limitations of my previous perspective: what I witnessed was not merely cultural differences but also profound societal rifts and conflicts, and whether it was racial discrimination or social injustice, they were not the patents of any specific country or culture but global issues. These experiences compelling me to reevaluate my position and role.