For The Blank by Huang Chi Teng
For many years, every journey—regardless of its scale, destination, or country—has included time spent observing and experiencing plants and natural environments. Street-side greenery, city parks, botanical gardens—visiting these places gradually became an essential part of every trip.
After a road trip around Iceland with friends, I experienced more deeply the raw beauty and constant variation of nature. If there is one journey that left me with a lasting sense of inner energy, and one I still think about, it is Iceland.
Since then, I have become increasingly conscious of seeking out natural environments in my travels: gardens and estates on the outskirts of cities, gardens beside palaces, greenhouses near castles, remote mountain villages in northern regions. Even occasional hikes, camping trips, and off-road journeys have become ways of moving closer to the mountains. Each experience quietly brings something of nature’s energy back with me.
Recently, I have come to realize that much of my daily life, overwhelmed by work, is actually a space filled with things—a filled emptiness. And those brief moments of pause, whether forgotten or unintentional, are moments when that emptiness is finally allowed to exist.
I think back to childhood, when I never understood why adults loved taking photographs of landscapes so much.
Now I understand. The most healing moments of a journey are often those blank moments when thoughts are set aside, and the body simply experiences nature.
With these landscape photographs, I offer a space for blankness.
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Year: 2023
Published by: HOUTH BOOKS
