1. Public Conversations on the Yangtze River
As a documentary photographer, I took part in the workshop by sharing my Yangtze River project with the public. During the open conversation, I listened to participants’ own impressions and questions, which often challenged my fixed perspectives and made me see familiar scenes anew. This exchange, I believe, turned my personal practice into a shared act of looking and questioning where photography became less about authorial vision and more about inviting others into the river’s complex, contradictory realities. In that sense, my engagement was about opening up my working process and letting the public read, interpret and even reframe my images through their own lived experiences along the shore.
As a documentary photographer, I took part in the workshop by sharing my Yangtze River project with the public. During the open conversation, I listened to participants’ own impressions and questions, which often challenged my fixed perspectives and made me see familiar scenes anew. This exchange, I believe, turned my personal practice into a shared act of looking and questioning where photography became less about authorial vision and more about inviting others into the river’s complex, contradictory realities. In that sense, my engagement was about opening up my working process and letting the public read, interpret and even reframe my images through their own lived experiences along the shore.
2. Australia’s Freedom Ride
I took part in the 50‑anniversary Freedom Ride, a public engagement activity honouring the original 1965 Freedom Ride. That historic 1965 campaign was led by 29 students including Charles Perkins, Sydney University’s first Indigenous student, to expose unfair and harsh treatment towards Australia’s Indigenous peoples. I joined a new‑generation student group together with some participants from the original 1965 bus tour. We travelled across rural New South Wales, visiting towns such as Dubbo, Walgett, Moree, Bowraville and Kempsey. Though our journey started as a historical re‑enactment, I realised the justice work begun 50 years earlier remained incomplete. I went into local communities to listen to Indigenous voices that had long been ignored, and to document their experiences.
I took part in the 50‑anniversary Freedom Ride, a public engagement activity honouring the original 1965 Freedom Ride. That historic 1965 campaign was led by 29 students including Charles Perkins, Sydney University’s first Indigenous student, to expose unfair and harsh treatment towards Australia’s Indigenous peoples. I joined a new‑generation student group together with some participants from the original 1965 bus tour. We travelled across rural New South Wales, visiting towns such as Dubbo, Walgett, Moree, Bowraville and Kempsey. Though our journey started as a historical re‑enactment, I realised the justice work begun 50 years earlier remained incomplete. I went into local communities to listen to Indigenous voices that had long been ignored, and to document their experiences.
.jpg)
