Taca Sui, "Luo River," 2015

Based in Qingdao, Shandong Province, China, fine art photographer Taca Sui uses his camera to carefully conjure the past within a fleeting present. Seeking locations that resonate in Chinese history, he travels throughout the country documenting sites that allow him to trace the ancient past through geologic time. In a body of work entitled "Steles - Huang Yi," Taca takes inspiration from Qing-dynasty bureaucrat Huang Yi (1744-1802), who recorded the histories carved into stone steles of Shandong province through rubbings, paintings, and diaristic writings. Now heavily eroded by the elements, each stele stands in its remote surroundings as disappearing monuments of China's cultural past. By capturing the evocative details of these inscrutable landscapes with visual precision, Taca Sui isolates each historic setting from linear time and geographic context and presents them instead as liminal spaces between China's past and present.

Archival pigment print on baryta paper. Unframed.