To take each photo as writing a poem

Firstly, I would like to thank Prof. Yao Feng for his cooperation with Macao 1844 Photography Art Space to publish this photo album.

I have known Prof. Yao Feng for more than ten years and I am grateful to have the privilege of working with him in organization of various cultural events. Now, I am very happy to have be entrusted with publishing his photography collection. I still remember when I first met him, I was accompanying a good friend to a gathering, held the University of Macau, and he gave me an impression of wisdom, integrity and low profile. I saw his art works was at his solo installation exhibition held in Macau. I was very impressed by one of these works that used the technique of misappropriation to put a cross on the advertisement related to Macau’s sex industry in order to reflecting, in a direct and powerful way, his thinking about other side of social reality. As a famous poet, the poems written by Prof. Yao have been loved by people. When I held a photography exhibition, I got the support from Prof. Yao with his poems quoted into the exhibition. I was very pleased because his poems raised my exhibition to a higher level.

The language of poetry is a highly refined language, and we can say that the photography of Prof. Yao is conformed to his poetry creation that follows the principle of "less means more". His photography is just like poetry. Through the distillation of different elements, he uses his own photographic language to condense the moment and express rich, condensed and highly generalized emotions and thoughts. To express the above characteristics, only thinking and seeing are not enough. Unlike words, which can be deliberated slowly, the photography is a visual language with its limitations. It must be achieved by seeing and taking pictures in an instant. Photography also requires a personal understanding of composition, lighting, color and other skills. In addition, the most important thing is the feeling of the photographer. Through refining different elements, he condensed the moment with his own photographic language to express rich, concise and highly generalized feelings and thoughts. To express the above characteristics, only thinking and seeing are not enough. Photography is different from words, and words can be considered slowly. However, the photography is a visual language with its limitations. It must be achieved by seeing and taking pictures in an instant. The photography also requires an individual understanding of composition, lighting, color and other skills. However, the most important thing is the feeling of the photographer, which is not easy to teach and learn. If you just see, but do not feel, you will not produce good works. The so-called feeling is a flash of inspiration, which originates from the photographer's personal cognition, experience and spiritual feelings, as well as the photographer's innate talent or accumulated experience. Undoubtedly, the photographic creation of Prof. Yao has validated these points, and he uses a unique photographic language to turn the words in his heart into images.

This album contains a total of 91 photographic works taken by Prof. Yao when he has traveled to many countries and regions. They were captured outdoors with SLR camera or mobile phone, but some of them were posed for the realization of his concepts. These works are a manifestation of his achievements over the years. His photography has a strong personal style, characterized by quietness, suggestion and lyricism, which makes the people feel the emptiness, reality, humor, absurdity, depression, helplessness, sadness and contradiction, especially the fragility of human beings, but there is no lack of compassion and warmth for the world. In a word, these works, both the images and the words, are looking into the people and things he has seen with his soul. They can help us to calm down and reflect on the reasons why people are vulnerable in today's fast-changing society where every second counts.

Finally, I would like to thank the Macao Foundation and all our friends for their support in making this book possible.

Iong Man Pan

October 8, 2022