Recollections the days gone by are the most common scenes that come up in my mind these days. They are purely matters of personal privacy as well as beyond words. These scenes have become important integral parts of my mental condition. As days pass by these recollections grow and get stronger. It has come to a point that I have to search for a formula to express them.

This series of photo works is the result of my efforts in recent years. The persons in them are my friends, my parents and I. The taking of these re-makes often requires strict and specific arrangements based on the older versions (for example the positioning of each of the persons has to be the same as that in the old picture). The retaking reflects not only the changes in people and society or the passage of time; the more important aspect is my attempt to re-produce past moments, though it may be as ephemeral as the click of the shutter. These works are far from their finished stage. Ten or twenty years later, I will re-take them again. A lot of the people may not be there and may be myself too. Oh, how I cherish time.

Photographs have been stubbornly reprinting lost times. This sort of unattainable absurdity represents my comprehension of art. The process of searching for the persons in that old photograph, to a certain degree, are much more meaningful than the remaking and producing the photo work itself.

When you really immerse yourself in life and lice your time, art itself bears no significance; or it is of no importance at all. I love that indescribable emotional sorrow. Furthermore, in these works there is no requirement for photographic techniques or necessity for aesthetic interest. The mindless yet direct way of expression is what I love now.

I try to put these works on the junction between art and life.

“A few words on my photo works”

- by Hai Bo