In ‘Until We Meet Again’ Wang Zhong weaves found photographs of anonymous families from the 1970/1980s alongside images taken by him, in order to contemplate the meaning of time, memory and emotional resonance.
Zhong writes:
‘By chance I came across some vintage slides at a camera market.
These fragments were mundane, scattered, and devoid of logic.
Yet within them, I read tales of farewells and reunions, fate and choices, love and friendship, discovery and growth, solitude and hope, memory and time...
These moments were not just individuals’ memories, they were emotional symbols shared by all of humanity. Whether joy, sorrow, loneliness, or desolation, these emotions transcend time and space, connecting the hearts of everyone. What you see might be your own story or that of a stranger, but they all speak of similar emotions. Nostalgia for the past, anticipation for the future, and a cherishing of the present. I tried to collect these strangers’ memories and weave them into empathetic visuals through my own artistic practice.
Each set of photos is a deconstruction of time—it belongs neither to the past nor the future but exists in an eternal state outside of time. Just like the emotional memories and psychological experiences universally shared by humanity, they show little trace of being altered by time. 'Until we meet again’ is no longer a promise about time but a questioning of time itself. It reminds us that farewells and reunions are not the beginning or end of time but another form of existence beyond time and space. Each set of photos attempts to erase the marks of time.’
Wang Zhong was born in a beautiful coastal city in northern China. He studied fine art painting before enrolling at School of Design of Jiangnan University. There, he discovered photography through an elective course and became deeply captivated by it. He later pursued a Master's Degree at the School of Design, Central Academy of Fine Arts, where he began contemplating and experimenting with photography as the focus of his career.
His early works primarily featured spaces and still life, often published in RayLi Magazine and Space Magazine. In 2011, he moved to Sydney, shifting his focus to portrait and fashion photography. His works have since appeared in T Magazine, New York Times Travel, V Magazine, Bazaar UK, Bazaar Australia, L’Officiel, and Herdes.
His fine arts background from his youth, combined with his design-related education and professional experience, endows Zhong’s photography with a dual quality—both artistic and practical.
112 pages, 15 x 21.7 cm, hardcover, M.33 (Melbourne).