Shiwei Tu

This work focuses on intimacy within a long-distance relationship, exploring how emotions shift between presence and absence, leaving traces of touch and memory. It reflects on how love endures and transforms when physical connection is limited by distance. Inspired by personal experience and informed by ideas of individualisation and the fluidity of intimacy in contemporary Chinese society, the work contemplates the negotiation between love and self. Through photography, these transitions become quiet images revealing the subtle changes of distance and affection.

The work consists of thirty photographs forming an intimate diary. The camera follows the folds of the bed, where traces of touch become metaphors for emotion. As natural light moves across the sheets, the old camera lends the images a soft, memory-like blur. Printed at a modest scale, the photographs invite close viewing and calm intimacy rather than visual dominance. Their sequence breaks from chronology, echoing the rhythm of a relationship where unspoken feelings surface through the folds.

I often observe myself, and who I become within intimacy, in order to understand how emotions and boundaries shift through love. Photography becomes a way to translate these observations into visible form, turning personal experiences into quiet expressions. Yet individual feelings are never isolated—they move with the changes of society. As society transforms, so does our understanding of intimacy. Making private emotions visible is both a personal act of openness and a response to the evolving state of individuality and intimacy in contemporary China.