Birds, the Flowers, and Them is a photographic project that documents the lives of Chinese immigrants in Switzerland. It combines black-and-white landscape and portrait photography to explore the challenges and joys of living in a new country.
The photographer himself arrived in Switzerland from China in 2019. In the short time since then, he has experienced cultural differences, a crisis of self-identity, and loneliness and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to these challenges, the photographer began to seek out other Chinese immigrants in Switzerland, to discover the story of every individual.
Due to Switzerland’s unique geography and urban distribution, it is difficult to find a large Chinese community like those in other major cities. As a result, the photographer’s project unfolded as he started to connect with other Chinese immigrants.
Each person has a different story. Some students never thought they would stay in Switzerland after graduation, but they came to identify with the culture here during their studies. Some were invited to come for work, and have been building new lives while they work. Still others have lived in Switzerland for many years and have raised families here.
Like migratory birds, they have flown to Switzerland and come to rest, some left and some stayed. Like dandelion seeds, they have been scattered by the wind and eventually grow their roots in the new soil.
Through meeting and talking with them, the photographer has come to question the meaning of “home”: When you have been away from your homeland for a long time, do you still belong there? And after living in another country for many years, can you truly call it home? Furthermore, what is an ideal environment? How can we navigate the challenges of cultural differences and build self-identity?
In this series of photographs, the photographer deliberately chose the indoor environment in which each person lives to reflect their current real state. The photos make extensive use of red, a strong color that symbolizes blood, national flags of both China and Switzerland.
Su Yang is a Chinese photographer and visual artist who is currently based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Yang spent his early childhood surrounded by nature in an isolated military factory community, he moved out to different cities with family since he was young. Back in the 90s during the modernization progress and economy growth of China, Yang growing up witnessing the change of the country.
After graduating from bachelor in Communication & Design in Shanghai, 2011, Yang became a fashion and commercial photographer working with magazines and fashion brands. After achieving a success in his commercial career, he found the urge to express his own voice as an artist through photography. He became a master student in photography at écal, Switzerland in 2019.
During the study and experience in Switzerland, Yang found back his strong connection with the nature from when he was little. In his recent works, some of them including digital experimentation, bodies of water become his main metaphoric elements to express his life experience and critical thinking on the topic of Anthropocene. His reflection on the material and the virtual, and the notion of materializing the virtual has been a key axis of his practice as an artist.
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