SCOPE Vol. 1 — LightYearBowl

SCOPE Vol. 1

“Scope” refers to the act of aiming with a scope while holding a gun—the gaze draws close to the scope, zooms in, and aligns the sight and crosshairs onto the target. Once this action begins, one is placed in the reality of potential threats beyond the frame.

Photography relies on landscapes defined by place. For photographers wandering the streets, the limitless and unknown world map is intrinsically part of the practice. The term “ideal landscape” is inherently contradictory, as the moment one sighs, “What a beautiful view,” it belongs to that instant seen by the naked eye, where the body has arrived. In this sense, the desired yet unseen scenery is simply an imagined version born from visual experience—a mirage until arrival. Yet even within an inescapable real landscape, the act of photographing is unstoppable. The allure of the unknown propels the practice, but picking up the camera itself becomes a form of battle, much like the dual meaning of “shoot” in both photography and gunfire. Photography’s documentation provides interpretation, making it a way of arming and defending oneself. Forgetting that the camera is a weapon close at hand can be dangerous. With time, a photo grows more estranged, and the world within the frame gradually slips further away. Keep shooting, never letting the world fade into impressions. Images reflect reality, but they can also become projections of a selective, overlooked, or hoped-for version of reality.

The city is a fusion of both reality and illusion. The two cities captured in SCOPE’s first installment—Hong Kong and Shanghai—are precisely such places, where the world is like film, continually exposed and developed, with new atmospheres overlaying old scenery. Those who battle with a camera are, in a sense, marksmen of their era. The gun’s “shoot” is an outward strike, an attempt to hit, an attack, while the camera’s “shoot” copies reality, capturing the light of the world and making it a human acquisition. It cannot directly grasp the captured reality but instead duplicates and interprets it, challenging it. Reality continues to erode, and SCOPE is born within this decline.

SCOPE will continue. In the next issue, Yilun Feng will join us.

LET’S SCOPE AND SHOOT.