Hong Kong based photographer K Ying Wong starts with a quote out of Daido Moriyama – Memories of a Dog when she tells us about herself and her work: “When you cannot find the corresponding evidence of the past memories, it is futile to indulge in fantasy, you cannot press the shutter inside your head to capture the illusion.”
And she continues: “I always have some illusions, images inside my head and I want to let out of them, or physicalize them instead of just cage them inside my head. So I think taking photos is a good way and I especially like taking photos using films. It is the means I chose to make my illusions real. Photos and drawings are very different, photos can prove something real, it can prove the existence of something, someone or some events. And this property of photos means something to me.” And what more does she wants to capture? “Currently I’m into something red, sharp colors, messy, shaky, steamy, fierce, with hard shadows, body parts, blurry and repetitive. With all these, I wonder where I’m heading to, what am I becoming. I see all my photos as self portraits. So I believe when I decide what or how to capture, it is more like the decision made by my subconsciousness. My subconsciousness helps me discover or spot the scene that could match with the illusions inside my head. When I’m taking photos I’m actually finding the flesh, the body for my illusions. If I share with others or keep them to myself I guess physicalizing my thoughts actually helps me to know myself.” An intimate documentary character and youth culture we see as the two big themes within her photographs and she tells us that she is still attached to the Kurt & Courtney, Sid & Nancy things; the sort of reckless, harmful love.
