Guanling Chen

Guanling Chen(b.1996, China) is a photographer based in Shanghai and London. By photographing landscape, portrait and still life, she attempts to trace humanity's lost paradise and explore the romantic and fickle relationship between people, space, and herself. She is interested in self-publishing and hand-made books and enjoys the texture and tactility of different papers and printing methods. She hopes to explore more possibilities of practice in the form of touchable books.

For more information, please visit here.

Give me flowers

Give me flowers is a story of loss to love again, originating from my contemplation of the relationships between people, places, and myself. By capturing my gaze on people, objects and landscapes, I try to obtain something such as a memory of the past, a trace of life, or an imagination of the future to express my restrained and attached emotions towards family, friends, and lovers, or even a loving and hesitant attitude towards everything.

‘Maybe I could hug you’ is a series I composed at a time of loss and contains my discovery of the uncertainty and vulnerability of human relationships. All close people can disappear after a certain turn and our eyes cannot meet all the time. Loneliness seems to be destiny, as we cannot always be aligned with each other. In the insecurity of having lost, being lost or about to be lost, I looked at them and took a restrained set of images as a shadow of my hesitation.

‘My Heart Beats Another Ten Thousand Times’ was created at a time when I was rebuilding a strong connection with the present. The powerful motivation for this reconstruction is love. It is a courageous vision that allows me to recover a discovery of the beautiful present. The vision of love is creative and gives me the strength to face life in the eye. I focus on people's expressions, skin and gestures, trying to capture the real touch and feeling of meeting, knowing and loving people again.

Just as my insecurities about loss are closely linked to my longing for love, I combined these two series in my exhibition entitled Give me flowers. I love beautiful and fragile flowers as much as I am addicted to romantic and fickle relationships. An encounter is like a flower, beginning with flowers and ending with flowers. When I leave, give me flowers.