Raw Soul

Yehlin Lee

"Raw Soul" is a personal meditation on my home island, Taiwan, shot between 2011 and 2017.

Once dubbed 'Ilha Formosa," the beautiful island, Taiwan is now a chaotic urban sprawl, making that nostalgic perspective seem ironic. Beneath its modern façades lies a body of folk religions deeply embedded in daily life. Shrines are everywhere. Rituals set the clock for people's lives. This somehow reflects the island's history of oppression. People of different cultures have come and gone--their memories obliterated or blending with others, the fears and desires of generations inscribed in the folk beliefs.

In 2011, I returned to Taiwan after an unfulfilling career as a sound artist abroad. Feeling unfamiliar and alienated, I found myself wandering corners of the city, mostly after nightfall, uncertain about what sorts of photos I wanted to take. Yet, what attracted me was the spiritual intensity of the people, things, and landscapes as well as its suppression.

In my creative process over the years, I learned first how to listen and then how to look. The difference between these sensory modalities is that looking is more constrained by intention. We see what we want and follow that which is visible. But one cannot escape listening; all one can do is unconditionally accept whatever sounds arrive. The difference between the two modalities is like that between a spotlight and a sonar.

This mindset continues to influence my way of looking. Like a submarine, I wait for my inner background noise to settle. To simply feel without any intention. To open my consciousness to the unexpected. To remain silent and dive within, beyond the collective consciousness of the Taiwanese. The essence of Taiwanese character, unknown to us, may reside in this chaos and confusion.

I savour this confusion in the dark. When sound is heard from within, I click the shutter.

"Every photograph is self-sufficient, but gathered in a book the pictures gain their own rhythm and flow... such a poetic tension that you want to contemplate it again and again."

"李岳凌的《Raw Soul》是本絕妙的攝影書，充滿幽微之意。書中所選的每張照片，如看單張即已獨自成立；集結成書後，更彰顯其內在節奏的流動。自第一頁起，你已然踏上作者精心安排的密徑。他誘惑我們進入他的遊戲，邀請我們發現鄰近影像的相似性。語意聯想與視覺關係間或交錯，沉浸在如此的詩意張力裡，不禁讓人低迴再三，反覆玩味。"