Especially in photography.

I’ve been captivated by the way visual storytelling expanded to include more conceptual approaches — be it image making, editing, or sequencing. 

A visual story can reflect a mood, extend a metaphor, or a poetic idea. It can respond to shapes, a time or a place. It can have human characters — or not. 

It can look at the past (archives) or the future (fiction?). 

It can imagine possibilities. 

It can ask questions.

🏖 In her book “Gold Coast,” Ying Ang photographs the paradox of a place experiencing both affluence and high crime. She challenges what people think a crime-filled place looks like. She asks why families choose to stay, and taps into unexpected visual languages. She plays with the metaphors of danger. She photographs the *idea* of crime scenes in a popular tourism hub.

🌪  In her following book “The Quickening” explores the transformational experience of pregnancy and early motherhood. She examines the process of moving further out into the world from birth, and “shrinking back in,” seeing your world contract during pregnancy. She also explores the medieval ways of collecting information through oral testimonies, due to lack of proper medical research and public knowledge about women’s health. The soft cover, poetic inserts, different layers (only the prologue is shot in medium format, distanced from the world as she did with ‘Gold Coast’), shows a deeply personal and inquisitive approach.

What’s your favorite conceptual work?