ZEN FOTO GALLERY

On the day I first met Zhang Yuming I decided to hold an exhibition of his photographs of ancient stone towers.

I was taken with his boyishenthusiasm for photography and for preserving an image of these towersbut most of all with the mysterious towers themselves. They arebeautiful, austere, sad and joyful. Zhang Yuming has identifiedthousands of Buddhist stone towers throughout China. Each photograph ofeach tower represents one step on his life's journey. Before taking eachphotograph Zhang Yuming humbly prays in front of the tower. To documentand record them all will be a lifetime pilgrimage.

I admire his faithfulness to hisdream. He is passionate. At one stage we had an unfortunatemisunderstanding caused by the vagaries of the Chinese postal system. AsI speak no Chinese and Zhang Yuming speaks no English he asked his15-year old daughter to speak with me to clear up the misunderstanding.She must miss her dear father who has left her in Anhui province tofollow his dream in Beijing, but through love for her father sheunderstands that he must follow this path.

Stone towers stand for millennia.They seem ageless. Each has seen many tens of thousands of pilgrimsappear in front of them and bow their heads in prayer. Yet they too havetheir life cycle. They age and decay. They are eroded by the wind andthe rain and sometimes damaged by greedy humans. They are some of ouroldest friends. Thanks to Zhang Yuming they will be remembered, admiredand respected.

初次認識張玉明時，我便決定要企劃一個關於他所拍攝的古老石塔的攝影展。
他對攝影充的熱情及為保護古塔而從事的攝影記錄工作，讓我留下深刻的印象。
當然，除此之外，我也深深地為充滿神祕色彩的古老石塔而著迷。
古塔優美而樸澀，憂愁中而有一絲欣喜。

張玉明至今已前後拍攝中國各地約莫幾千座的佛教古塔。每張作品都代表著他人生旅程的一小步。每次拍攝之前，他總是會在石塔前，虔誠地磕頭膜拜。記錄古塔的旅程，將會是他一場對生命的巡禮。

我很欽佩他對追尋自己夢想的忠實。他是個相當熱情的人。有一次因為中國 郵政作業上的疏失而曾讓我們之間曾有過不幸的誤會，礙於我不會中文，而他也不會英文，為了要釐清這中間的誤會，他只好請他十五歲的女兒用簡單的英文向我解 釋。父親的遠行縱然讓她感到寂寞，但她對於為了尋夢而毅然決然離開安徽省上京的敬愛的父親，她心裡明白，這是父親該去的道路，他必須這樣去尋夢。

這些石塔屹立千年。它們是永恆的。它們看遍過往上萬的巡禮者，千里迢迢 來到它們的面前，彎身低頭，虔誠地奉獻祈禱。然而，它們各自也擁有生命。石塔會老，會腐朽，會受風雨侵蝕，時而受到貪欲的我們所破壞。石塔，是我們最古老 忠誠的朋友。感謝張玉明，為這些石塔留下記憶，讓它們受到更多的尊禮和崇拜。