Memory Melting

Memory Melting explores the fluidity of memory and biases in image expression within a long-term relationship, attempting to accurately portray feelings and scenes from childhood memories in an abstract manner.

If we compare our body to a container, memories would be like snowflakes attempting to fill it. When beautiful things enter my life, there's an underlying worry that they will one day disappear without a trace; this fear increases as I spend more time with them. However, I’ve come to realize that memories won’t vanish; they simply melt away like snow. After melting, the snow becomes even more fluid, as if flowing into the river of life.

In this project, I attempt to document my childhood friend, Di Zhao, whom I've known for more than 16 years. I've tried many ways to capture her, but I've always had the feeling that it's not the real her—or rather, not the her of my memory—until falling snowflakes slightly block my lens. When your eyes are close enough to something, it becomes blurred in your vision. As Di's face becomes increasingly blurred in the lens, she merges more and more with the image of her in my mind. On a winter afternoon when we were eight years old, the playground was covered in snow, and the world was blanketed in white.

Everyone else had left, but she was still playing in the snow on the playground.