Ars Photographica

Truth isn’t what we see — it’s what we choose to hold

A photo is just light paused in motion — time, caught mid-step, hesitating before slipping away. Great photos are not about technological excellence. Neither the softest lighting nor the most exacting detailing. It's about a moment that stays in your mind like a half-remember dream. It doesn’t just show something; it grabs you. It stares back. It’s unsettling. And you don’t forget it.

I take photos because everything is in motion. Light flickers. People pass. Moments vanish. A camera lets me hit pause. It says: I was here. This mattered. It’s not about making something permanent — it’s about honoring what won’t last. That’s why we photograph: to catch beauty before it disappears, to hold the fleeting, to say to the world, this was real.

Shot by Holly Wang, Qinchuan Ancient Village, 2022

Still, images are not exactly copies of reality. They are interpretations molded by the photographer's decisions on what to include, what to exclude, the perspective, the lighting. Every choice gives significance and turns a basic picture into a story.

Viewers attach to these images our own experiences. A picture of an empty street could make one person lonely while another feels nostalgic. The dynamic interplay between the image and the observer generates a fluid instead of a fixed meaning relationship.

Not merely light stopped, a picture is really a communication between the moment caught and the emotions it arouses in us. It is evidence of the power of silence in a culture always on.

Shot by Holly Wang, Qinchuan Ancient Village, 2022