Most of us think of fog as an inconvenience; it grounds flights and makes driving dangerous. But there’s also something magical about getting lost in it, when you can barely see what’s in front of you, animals and buildings appear out of nowhere, and you have to take a leap, or should that be step, of faith that there’s no treacherous cliff-edge a few metres ahead.
Zesheng Li takes this one step further by inviting us into the fog with him through his black and white photography. We’re immersed in it; there’s no distant horizon, we don’t know what it conceals and what it might reveal once we step further into it. He’s taking us into a hidden rural realm to reveal what he calls “the unseen architectures of experience”.
perception in fog, it unsettles us. Li is asking us to embrace uncertainty, suggesting that it’s only when we can’t see what’s around us that we truly experience the world. Suddenly, the smells, sounds, and the amorphous shapes let our imagination roam as free as the animals in his photographs.
In his triptych I, US, THEM (2023), the sheep nearby look almost ghostly, as if we’re seeing an afterimage of the sheep that once inhabited the land. Our eyes scan across the three frames as if they are three separate windows onto the same landscape, looking for the details that remain just out of reach. In other works, we see plant life and outlines of people that are just about visible. If they step a little closer, they will come into focus; a little further away, and they’ll be lost to us completely.
The animals that populate his work – cattle, sheep, horses – are other dwellers in the in-between spaces the fog creates. Li observes how “non-human life navigates the world with instinct, rhythm, and an unspoken sense of place”. These creatures carry on with their lives whether we are there or not. Maybe they are unaware of the ability to transcend worlds, or perhaps they are more aware, and we are the ones who remain ignorant.
The black and white palette ensures we aren’t distracted by bright colours and we can instead focus on the texture and detail, what’s present and absent from the scene. It also gives the work a timeless quality that suggests it could be from any age since the invention of photography. It ensures you really look at the works, get close and try to pick out the subtle details that aren’t visible from a distance.
As his practice evolves, I’d love to see what happens as the works get larger so we can really lose ourselves in it. Would the additions of smells and sounds make us feel like we’re where the photographs were taken? I’d also like to see the works become more abstract so that all we see is fog and the merest of outlines, similar to how Hiroshi Sugimoto creates black and white images that are just sea and sky.
For now, we’re content to get lost in the foggy worlds that Zesheng Li has created, look for the details just out of sight and ask ourselves how we’d feel in the places he’s captured.
霧之於常人，大抵只是一種煩擾：航班因之延誤，行車憑添險阻。然而其中亦藏著某種魔力，當你迷失其中，目不能視前方尺許，動物與建築忽從虛無中顯現，此刻你不得不邁出信仰的一躍（抑或說是步履），堅信數米之外並無險峻懸崖。
李澤晟通過黑白攝影藝術，將我們邀入更為深邃的迷霧之境。我們沉浸其中：遠方地平線已然消隱，不知這片氤氳遮蔽了什麼，又將在深入探索時顯露何物。他引領我們踏入隱秘的鄉野場域，揭示那些被他稱為「經驗中不可見的建築結構」。
人類向來以視覺為最倚重的感知方式，當迷霧剝奪了這種認知能力，不安便油然而生。李澤晟卻邀請我們擁抱不確定性，暗示唯有當目不能視時，我們才能真正體驗世界。剎那間，氣息、聲響與流動的形態讓想像力恣意馳騁，宛若他鏡頭中自由徜徉的生靈。
I, US, THEM (2023) by Zesheng Li. Exhibition view at The Handbag Factory Gallery. Courtesy of the artist.
在其三聯作《I, US, THEM》中，近處的羊群呈現出近乎幽靈般的質感，彷彿我們目睹的是曾棲息於此的土地之記憶殘影。觀者目光在三幀畫面間流轉，如同透過三扇獨立的窗窺視同一片風景，不斷追尋那些始終若即若離的細節。在其他作品中，植物與人物輪廓依稀可辨，若再近半步，形象便將清晰；稍退尺距，則徹底湮沒於迷霧。
作品中出現的牛、羊、馬等動物，皆是霧所構築的臨界場域中的棲居者。李澤晟觀察到「非人類生命以本能、韻律與不可言說的空間意識在世界中穿行」。這些生靈無論人類是否在場，皆延續著自身的生命軌跡。或許它們並未察覺自身穿越界域的能力，又或者，真正懵懂無知的其實是我們人類。
黑白影調的運用使觀者免於艷色的干擾，得以專注凝視場景中的紋理、細節、存在與缺席。這種處理同時賦予作品超越時代的特質，彷彿自攝影術發明以來的任何時代皆可誕生如此影像。它迫使你真正貼近作品，仔細辨讀那些遠觀時難以察覺的微妙細節。
隨著藝術實踐的深化，筆者期待看到作品尺度擴大後所帶來的沉浸式體驗。若引入氣息與聲響，是否會讓我們產生身臨拍攝現場的錯覺？亦希望見到更趨抽象化的創作——僅餘迷霧與極微輪廓，恰如杉本博司那些只留存海天分界的黑白影像。
此刻，我們甘願沉醉於李澤晟構築的迷霧世界，尋覓那些若隱若現的細節，並叩問自身：若身處其所捕捉的場域之中，我們將獲得怎樣的生命體驗？
BECAUSE WE HAVE TO by Zesheng Li. Courtesy of the artist.
Text By Tabish Khan
Published on 29th Sep 2025
