Lost in Eden is a photographic meditation on the duality of sanctuary - a paradox in which public spaces, imbued with colonial heritage and ecological preservation, serve simultaneously as refuge and mirror during societal upheaval. Originally commissioned for the 150th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens, the project interrogates a landmark that has long oscillated between being a stage for collective memory and a theater for solitary reckoning.

Created during a period of political unrest and pandemic isolation, the initial work framed the Gardens as a living archive, where visitors’ quiet acts of introspection - resting beneath banyan trees or lingering by a bronze statue - stood in contrast to the unspoken weight of Hong Kong’s identity tensions. My engagement went beyond the original commission, and, as the work was exhibited within the Gardens, my documentation of the space continued to trace its evolving narratives. This dialog between myself, the environment, and the interplay of past and present repositions the Gardens as an active participant rather than a static backdrop, its meaning reshaped by each visitor’s gaze and the city’s unfolding story.

The resulting images weave historical monuments and untamed foliage into a visual palimpsest. Visitors, absorbed in solitude yet framed by shared history, emerge as silent witnesses to resilience. Their ambiguous presence - a man pausing before a flowering bush, a woman with a Monroe-like allure striding down a fenced ramp - captures the dissonance of seeking solace in a space that embodies both continuity and rupture. Here, the Gardens’ role as sanctuary is destabilized; it shields not through escapism, but by confronting viewers with echoes of collective struggle etched into its stones and soil.

By layering time and emotion, Lost in Eden portrays a place as a dynamic process rather than a static entity. It asks: How do we negotiate refuge in landscapes that harbor both trauma and transcendence? Through its sustained dialogue with the Gardens, the series stands as a testament to the porous boundary between inner worlds and external realities, urging us to recognize the environment not as a passive shelter, but as an active collaborator in our search for meaning.

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