Feelings of Abandonment and Rejection

Abandonment and rejection can be both emotional and visual. Over time, these feelings often manifest as waste or things left behind. This series explores the emotions of abandonment and rejection through the places I visit and the traces of our daily live

This series began between 2024 and 2025. This is a small project in which I explore the feelings of rejection and abandonment. The theme also comes from my personal experiences. When I was wandering through the back alleys of Petaling Street in Kuala Lumpur, I saw objects left behind, things that seemed to carry a quiet sense of abandonment. The alleys always felt like hidden places that existed to cover up the flaws behind the city’s bright surface, doors and supermarket trolleys left there, tied up but forgotten.

After walking out of the alley, I saw an old man slowly walking ahead of me. He eventually sat down alone, looking around as people passed by, a scene that deeply contrasted with the busy street around him. I lifted my camera to capture that feeling. Later, during a trip to Penang, I noticed abandoned bricks left at the end of a bridge.

As I continued walking through different places, I tried to explore the feeling of abandonment and rejection, like a broken mirror and a locked gate in an alley, forming an image of “a heart that is shattered and closed.” Even things like drainage water, food waste at home, or unwashed dishes remind me of the sense that “the useful parts have been taken away, and what’s left is no longer needed.”