Ruizhe Hong’s photography journeys through the entangled emotions of intimate relationships

Ruizhe Hong is a photographer braver than most, for he tries to visually capture one of the most complex emotions: love. More specifically, Ruizhe shares, “most of my work focuses on the intricate and fragmented emotions one might experience in an intimate relationship”. Featuring two central subjects, Ruizhe’s personal projects show moments of tenderness through touch, and the photographer also uses objects like thread, eggs and birds as experimental visual metaphors.

Ruizhe’s inspirations spread far and wide. For his series So Close When You Look Away, Ruizhe was influenced by Roland Barthes’ book A Lover’s Discourse, in which Ruizhe explains he “tried to deconstruct the universal human emotion of falling in love”. Visually, Ruizhe cites the photographer Rinko Kawauchi as a foremost figure in leading his style. Tender, mediative and complex, Ruizhe’s photographs perfectly demonstrate the evocative potential of a single image.