ZEN FOTO GALLERY

In this lastest series of works, aptly titled after the artist himself, Adou goes to the root of the individual and the camera, the photo-grapher in front of the lens, seen and unseen, both photo-grapher and subject of his photographs. While making photographs in the mountains of Sichuan for his “Samalada” series of portraits, Adou once said “There is no difference between taking a picture of others and myself. The camera may be pointed outward, but whether you like it or not, it always reveals you”.

I don’t know why I take photographs; if I knew I would not keep taking them. I don’t know the significance of life; if I knew I would not keep on searching.

To me, photography is a kind of belief. I believe that photography is better than me. This explains why I disdain churches, why I disdain all forms that are other than photography. When you become a part of the (his) photograph, you do not need our shallow sensibilities to emphasize the greatness of an image. You are just vassal for the picture, some insignificant dust in the light.

We are so arrogant, apt to become false gods at hypocritical moments. However, this is not a true part of ourselves, we can also find brilliance in those moments. This is the contradiction…

If this answer has no significance – if you only care about process – then who can tell us, what is the process? “Don’t turn around, you’ll turn into stone.”

“沙馬拉達”向觀眾呈現四川西部彝族大涼山山區單純而豐富的風景和肖像，山坡上前行的男人, 霧中矗立的女人, 面容滄桑猶如刀刻的老人, 跑馬場, 很多人的集市, 簡陋的馬車, 雲霧繚繞的山頂. 到處都是寇德卡式的流放感。不同於普通意義上的紀實攝影，阿斗並非觀察者，他在這片充滿淳樸自由空氣的土地上找到了久違的自己，他用飽含情感的語彙和的影像引領觀者進入一個富於生命意識和歷史情懷的時空。 “攝影的鏡頭對著外界，但是無論你願意與否，其實鏡頭始終是對著你自己"。

我不知道為什麼要去拍照片，如果我知道我一定不會去了。我不知道生命的意義是什麼，如果知道一定不會去探尋。

攝影對我來說是信仰，我信照片勝過我自己……所以這能解釋我為什麼鄙棄教堂，鄙棄攝影之外的一切多餘的形式。當你成為照片（他）的一部分的時候，你不需要用我們淺薄的意識強加這些偉大的圖像。而自己不過是照片下的附庸，光下的微塵。

我們總是自大，總在虛妄的時候成為神。但是這並不真正屬於自己，我們又總是在其間找到光輝，這很矛盾……

如果說答案沒有意義，我們只在乎這個過程，可是誰能告訴我們，這就是過程？ “不要回頭，你將變成石頭。”