White Noise: The Reincarnation of the Pure

  • Dates
    2025 - 2025
  • Author
  • Topics Contemporary Issues, Fine Art, Photobooks, Portrait

The girls in the city are placed on the edge of identity dissolution and reconstruction, flowing between moments and eternity—reflecting on the steadfastness of purity, sensing the present's fragmentation, and anticipating the uncertainty of fate.

The girls in the city are not innocently pure but are aware of the world around them. They are placed on the edge of identity dissolution and reconstruction, flowing between moments and eternity—reflecting on the steadfastness of purity, sensing the present's fragmentation, and anticipating the uncertainty of fate. Lean never romanticizes purity; rather, she is more concerned with how purity survives pollution, transforms within desire, and is reborn in ambiguity. The "town" of girls is not a sanctuary but an exposed vessel, a condensed projection of contemporary spirituality.

They convey to us in an almost mystical manner that innocence is not fragile and can even be filled with sharpness and violence. The bodies and gazes of the girls brim with desire yet are also unflinching in the face of destruction. This complexity corresponds to the dialectical wisdom of Taoist thought, "knowing white and guarding black." Lean does not transform Eastern cultural symbols into mere decorative signs; instead, she internalizes Taoist philosophy into the ethics and structure of her creation from a deep spiritual source.

© Lean Lui - Image from the White Noise: The Reincarnation of the Pure photography project
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Through this series, I hope to provoke readers to reevaluate the representation of girls(少女), exploring their roles within complex social structures and how they seek strength and freedom amid their struggles.

© Lean Lui - Image from the White Noise: The Reincarnation of the Pure photography project
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A girl in a uniform automatically becomes an object of the male gaze; I cannot predict how many generations it will take for this situation to improve. The green grassland in the book symbolizes a utopia in my imagination, while the girl’s uniform represents power and freedom, allowing her to safely express their beauty.