Envision now an "image."

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It faces you as a flat, two-dimensional plane, presenting itself in a crisply defined rectangular shape. However, this conception of an image was a tool "forged" during the Renaissance in the 15th century with the advent of linear perspective. This contemporary perspective has become the sole lens through which to ponder the image, or more precisely, the exclusive method to perceive the world.

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Leveraging the principles of flat-plane painting, humans construct a three-dimensional illusion on a two-dimensional surface, simulating what is observed head-on. The tangible world is confined within a rectangular frame, rotating on the movement of the human eye.

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Yet, human eyes did not evolve for looking at the flatness; their purpose is to evaluate distances in open spaces. Linear perspective is not a natural way of seeing but an abstraction derived from it. According to linear perspective, images farther away from the center distort more noticeably. Therefore, when drawing, this distortion can be artificially rectified based on experience. Can we assert that today's entire visual culture implies a form of "distortion"? Distortion stemming from the act of looking, distortion from forcibly correcting the distortion, and even distortion in the entire concept of perception? As we spend more time fixating on screens, gazing at that rectangle and the world we believe is perfectly compressed into it, the distortion intensifies. Perspective induces a hypnotic state, detaching from all material ties, entering the realm of the mind.

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The photography project named "Perspective" extends my contemplation of the "image." In this project, I re-captured the "image" in the physical world, aiming to bring attention to the long-established ways of seeing through the clarity provided by these photographs. Each image in the project bounces back and forth between the physical world and the screen world.

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Furthermore, a few key points merit attention. Firstly, I retained the perspective of the images, just as they naturally appear in everyday life. What are the statistically probable chances that images in space possess perspective, facing you as a standard rectangle? In contrast, screens, serving as carriers for the majority of images today, perpetually dictate a specific viewing angle for the images they display. In "Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan through Popular Culture," Slavoj Žižek suggests that only looking awry allows people to perceive the truth. Essentially, we cannot elude the filter we impose on ourselves.

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Secondly, when capturing images in the physical world, the materiality of the images—surrounding environments, the texture of the images themselves, or the delicate or rough design and Photoshop traces—are all enveloped. Torben Eskerod, in his photography series "Campo Verano," re-photographed photographic portraits on tombstones. The marks of time, scratches, corrosion, and cracks accentuate the eternal, serene smiles of the departed, prompting a deeper understanding of the finite and infinite nature of life.

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Lastly, considering my act of re-capturing images as an artistic language, there's a precedent in art history with Richard Prince's work in the 1980s, such as "Untitled (cowboy)." He directly appropriated tough-guy images from Marlboro advertisements, stripped of logos and branding paraphernalia. At a time when American cowboy culture was nearly extinct, this image became a reflection on values and culture, a "nostalgia for imagination."

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In branch 1 "visage" of this photography project, I captured the human faces as images. The advertising industry has been seeking visages that can evoke the desire to consume, and those faces always have an "inhuman" aspect. Who are they looking at? Are we looking at an individual's face, or, as massive crowds, seeing ourselves reflected in the image?

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As Richard Prince asserted, "I wanted to re-present the closest thing to the real thing." In this project, my "close" is physical closeness: when shooting, my body is very close to these images—close enough to attempt to transcend the boundary between the flat world and the physical world.

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I endeavor to penetrate the image, devour the image, or be engulfed by the image.