the power of speaking without saying a word

July 18th, 2009

This collection by photographer Zhu Yunwei is entitled “black and white/dark and light”.  Each portrait consists of two portrait shots of each person – one with opened eyes, the other with closed eyes.  He then integrated the two pictures into one portrait, resulting in the calm but unnatural expressions.

In the beginning, he planned to do some very basic experiments to convey some common emotions.  Being a young chinese student who’d just arrived in a completely different country, he experienced some strong, deep cultural conflicts.  Living overseas resulted in the different way of THINKING for him while working on this project…a common theme expressed in artworks by other chinese artists such as Xu Bing or Miao Xiaochun.

Zhu is also interested in the ‘everyday’ people and day-to-day life…common things that have a complicated inconsistency. In his works, he shows two entirely incompatible states of consciousness at the same time.  He believes that these basic states are just like the simple contrasts of black and white.

Zhu chose the portrait format of the face because it is the most direct and basic element of human expression. Expressions such as laughter have a universal meaning and are metaphorical all over the world.

I found it really amazing that how when you cover one side of the faces, it projects a totally different emotion.  This is an excellent example of  how much we say is really none verbal…THINK ABOUT IT!!!

Entry Filed under: Art, Think About It!