49. SUNNY SUN - A SPACE BETWEEN AWARENESS AND RESTRICTION.
‘Do I need to be objective about something I don’t feel is quite right?’
S.S.
Image courtesy of the Sunny Sun.
We were talking recently about the notion of not needing to be convinced - when something feels right, can you expand upon this idea and how it relates to you?
I realised when I speak to others, who like different things, they always try to convince you with their point of view, the reason, a different understanding and insight. No matter what they say - they can’t really convince me - everyone seems to try to be neutral in different circumstances, but is that really possible? I start asking myself ‘Do I need to be objective about something I don’t feel is quite right?’
The attractiveness or reluctance of anything comes from the thing itself, not from how anyone tried to explain/justify it. So I believe no one can be convinced, or anything can convince anyone, if anyone has an opinion I guess it cannot be explained. But at the same time when things are good enough, your instinct will feel it.
Image by Sunny Sun for M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2021, as seen within issue one of M-A (A SPACE BEWTEEN) 2021. Still life image: Harry Nathan.
You know I love your photographs, your contribution to issue one of M-A was so distilled, even private and yet your pictures have a specific generous quality which seem to welcome interpretation.
The series from Hong Kong feels so strong, the sleeping father, the granular city in the scorching heat of August... when you look at your work what do you see now?
Umm, Joe you know I never take photography seriously just like a ‘photographer‘. Always out of focus, films out of date, or even with a random camera. I started picking up shooting images (won’t say photography as I don’t think it’s proper) when the mood comes, My mother playing mahjong, capturing the sound that I got so annoyed as a kid that eventually I felt at home hearing it. Or my father sleeping on the couch (just like a mugshot, no shame but scared at the same time). When I first started to take images, I felt the struggle between trying to be brave, and the reluctance of pressing the shutter. Once I pressed the button, everything stopped within that image, no idea if it is overexposed, or even if anything comes out. I guess that’s the tedious journey of being with film without doing it properly, the instinct of that split moment, no idea, not feeling secure. But that nervousness captured how I felt at that time, its abstract and intimate that only myself will feel.
Now I look back by the perfectly edited down images, I felt thouse nerves, the struggle to make my mind up. It’s just like looking back to the first word of a public speech. Maybe I meant something maybe it didn't, but looking back what’s real and what’s not? I guess going back to being convinced or not I am glad the audience felt differently from the images, they probably find more values in those images that I did while I took them. I find that quite fascinating.
I had a first look at the first series of M-A, and I said that this is the only tactile media I’ve read in my life that makes me want to flip back and think what exactly is this? I recalled looking at my images - I almost forgot what I’ve taken. I guess I wasn’t convinced, the images convinced myself or others of something else, memory stayed intimate to myself. You see, no one knew it was my father...
Image courtesy of the Sunny Sun for M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2021.
Image courtesy of the Sunny Sun for M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2021.
You are a designer also, and you favour a very discreet aesthetic that resonates with a respect for materials which you seem to see almost like ingredients... There is a certain shrugged on invisible - gentle quality within your own identity and your images reflect that - can you trace back to the key moments in your life which have helped form the way you see?
I was never shown as a masculine person, I like feeling humanity, being free flow. Feeling material and craft but also knowing the fact that there are some sort of invisible rules. Images are the same, I recalled myself saying, my images have to be film, but in a P&S camera with no settings, I like to set myself rules but nothing looks stable. Of course from time to time I stopped using film and I just have that awareness of restriction inside me and again, every images comes out as random as it looks. The formal sense is hidden to myself, same from taking pictures, to the clothing I like, or the things I want to design really.
Image courtesy of the Sunny Sun.
Your loyalty to your own instinct is probably the thing I respect most about you, and I know that people in your circle feel the same way, you are the go-to person to ask about sourcing. In fact I think the first time we met you were striding through a studio triumphantly holding a double-faced tweed coat from Jil Sander in one hand which you had freshly acquired and had already secured a buyer - your ease in acquiring amazing things is certainly a talent, do you remember the first objects you started to collect?
Aha, the Jil Sander, was a steal back in the day and reselling since I knew I won’t be wearing it!
I guess I like to understand products and items from the second-hand market, and how it was worn. I always believed that clothing is like a tech, its existed to be used, and to be felt and to solve problems.
Not only what I buy and wear, as an accessories designer, we love to collect materials, hardware or tools. We appreciate them and think how it can be enhanced, or even solve problems in a design/product perspective. I love factories and rustic sourcing markets, they are people that fulfil our fantasies, solve the problem that we wanted to be solved. Designers are there to solve problems, not only practicality but also aestheticly, I guess that’s my core and that’s why I love participating in sourcing too.
I remembered the first ever thing I really started to crave and buy multiples of were Tricker’s shoes. I really liked the shapes, and everything. But eventually I stopped wearing them, and looking back - how on earth I wore them - so rigid and heavy, and travelled everywhere? Except being so hard to wear in at first, Tricker’s shoes are a wonderful piece of tech.
Image courtesy of the Sunny Sun for M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2021.
Your returning to London always interests me - even when you are not there your mind seems to be in some way there, what is it about the city that resonates within you?
London means home to me, I’ve been here for 10 years. It’s great to feel, revisit and explore the city, it’s always cinematic, passionate in some ways and quite special despite the fact that more and more people rant about London.
I’ve been living in many cities and I miss and fantasise about london a lot. This time I’ve moved back - I am not a student. I feel that London makes the majority of us special - We are all enjoying, expressing and struggling...
For me London gives you things that cannot be bought with money.
Image courtesy of the Sunny Sun for M-A (A SPACE BETWEEN) 2024.