WAN Chi Chung Simon

BA, University of Wales Collate, UK
MFA, Ulster University, UK
Specialty: Photography

Simon Wan graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in Documentary Photography in 2000 and an MFA in photography from the Ulster University of Belfast in 2018. He had been teaching at various institutions and also founded the art space – “The Photocrafters” dedicated to promoting local photography education.

Inspired by nature, his practice combines photography with artistic acts, typically demanding endurance activities such as mountain climbing and kayaking, to address the relationship between human and nature and explores the meaning of human existence. Signature work included – “City Glow” 2008, “107 No Man Islands” 2015, “The other side of the mountain” 2018, “Searching through non-searching” 2019, and his ongoing decennial project “Climb every mountain in HK’ which began in 2003.

Wan’s works have been featured internationally and acquired by many local and international private collectors and institutes.

Discovering

The world is overwhelmed in photography. I never like using image as a tool to shock, a motive I disagree with. Regarding photography, my view is that ‘nothing is new, all has already been done before’, so the intention to look for subjects to express extraordinary ideas is considered meaningless and unnecessary. Rather, I always strive to look into everyday matters, and transform them into new perspectives. There, I discover things not just for what they are, but also for what else they can be.

While everyone is busy searching for the image, I have come to realise that, at the end of the day, what really matter is the search itself.