I’m Kwei, a picturetaker. I’m 25 years old. I was born in Chongqing, China but have travelled extensively in my life, spending a lot of time in Hungary especially. I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology and am now doing an MA in documentary filmmaking at the University of Cape Town.

 

My work primarily but not exclusively focuses on discovering street life through photography, and I also make documentaries.

 

For the main part my work is concerned with details, prediction(the capacity to guess what will happen next second) and narrative. I attempt to create non-fiction narratives and present them for viewers to interpret. I want to call people to observe and question the things around us. 

 

Photography allows me to discover and situate myself in spaces we tend to overlook. I am called to street photography for this reason: to see the unseen and challenge ways of seeing.

 

I am influenced by photographers such as Joel Meyerowitz, Garry Winogrand, Alex Webb, Diane Arbus, Mark Cohen, and Martin Parr; as well as sociologist, Erving Goffman. 

 

I strive to make controversial pictures which challenge conventional notions of what is considered beautiful. Perhaps I’m in search of the beauty of imperfection in the digital world where so often we only find good-looking self-presentation.