Few days ago, I went to one of my family members’ house to pick up something. I got out off the car without wearing the mask. And I only realized that after I got back to the car. And Thank God there is nobody else hanging out at that block at the time. And I just realized wearing a mask is still not something that I am familiar with even through that have become a symbol of 2020. I began to ask myself, how long it will take for all these become a new normal for us. I don’t know, I feel like my memories are still frozen on 2019, that’s the reason why I kept mentioning this in all my blogs or photography posts.

In June, 2019, right before I went back China for a trip, I took some photos with two of my best friends in Manhattan Bridge. And that’s also my first time to walk through the whole Manhattan Bridge (even though I have done it on Brooklyn Bridge for several times). I still remembered I posted these photos in my social media after I arrived China, and how it was when I shared those photos with my friends who also love photography in China. I tried to print some of them out in China back then, but I didn’t really care much about it, so I only got a few prints in pretty bad quality. But one thing is good that their size is really tiny, just like the photos from those instant camera, so that I could carry them easily. I recalled all these last week, so I decided to go back to the same spot upon the Manhattan Bridge, and take the pictures kind like making a comparison. But before that, I went to CVS to print out another copies of the old photos since the quality of the ones I printed before are really bad.

I actually didn’t go straight to the bridge, instead I walked around in Dumbo to do some urban photography first. Even though with the effect of COVID-19, that area was still crowded. Some people were hanging out without a mask, which I think that really dangerous. Please keep safe! I will talk more about the experience of this in another post in the future.

But when I walked upon the bridge, trying to find the same spot where I took these photos a year ago. But unfortunately, I can’t. I walked forward and backward at that area for several time, but I just can’t find it. Standing there, looking to the barbed wire, I realized that A Year is not short, everything could be changed in that time period, maybe I was just lucky to take that picture with a lock above the hole on the barbed wire. I mean, you don’t really be in the right spot, at the right time, meet the right person, do the right things all the time. Things are changing with the time passes because of tiny factors. I looked at the Brooklyn Bridge far away, people and the cars are still running through the bridge, toward their own destination. I was standing there alone, feeling like I can still hear the voices that my friends and I were talking about dreams and other stuffs a year ago.

A Year ago, the shutters clicked, the moments were frozen. And with the time flows toward, I believe those moments would still be kept carefully even though the memories began to fade away in our mind.

Keep safe, Stay healthy!

BrandSONYCameraILCE-7M3LensFE 24-70mm F2.8 GMApertureƒ/2.8ISO160Focal Length24 mmFocal Length In 35mm Film24 mmExposure Time1/60 sExposure ProgramAperture Priority

Shot on the day before Christmas, 2019. The crowd was flowing around in the city, people had their destination to go, their dreams to achieve. So did I.

Life might be the same as last year if nothing happens. Trips around, meeting the people that I wanna see. But at the end of the day, all these did happen, no matter good or bad. So does that really matter if the parallel universes exist? Even there is a universe that nothing bad happens, we will not get a chance to know. People, including me, kept thinking what if nothing happens, what if I didn’t do that, what if I did, etc.

Instead, we are living in the present. Do what we should do, pray for the other universe, pray for the future.

每次站在机场的航班信息大屏前，那些我们不曾有机会探访的城市名在闪烁着。

那一刻，你会觉得你与那个城市的距离似乎只剩下你与显示屏之间的那一步之遥。

看着涌动的人群，你不由得会去想象他们究竟在前往一个怎样的目的地，又即将发生什么。

我们自嘲道，世界很大，但我们有幸看到的那一部分世界又是那么的小。