The Intangible Realm 無境

The Intangible is a collection of photos of beautiful rocks off the northwest coast of Taiwan, which Sand Wan took during his many trips over there and later modified through image editing. The textures and grains of the time-worn rocks appear hyper-real in the delicate light captured by his lens. But he wasn't satisfied. With image editing, he rebuilds the perspective and a sense of space around the objects, creating a wonderful balance between reality and aesthetics. The final result is both concrete and abstract, real and illusive, just as the great Chinese painter Qi Baishi once said, "The subtlety lies between resemblance and non-resemblance."

Strong photogenic sense and unique Schlieren method were applied to express the photographer's inner emotions, and the somewhat desolate textures convey a subtle grief. Sand Wan attempts a metamorphosis from the accumulated quantitative changes. He forgoes a photographer's obsession about realism and freely pursues the poetic aspiration in his hear - an Intangible Realm where there are no external scenes but the ones created in one's mind.