All images shot on Canon Mark IV, 70-200mm+ 24-70mm
My shifu, Master Hu, and his longtime friend, Master Zhou, are touring martial arts academy.
WUSHU CULTURAL EXCHANGE
I traveled to China with my Shifu, Master Hu, and Wushu community to compete and train. These images capture the experiences and memories along the way—moments when my hands were free to hold a camera instead of a sword.
UNDER A SPELL
FENG HUANG
ANCIENT TOWN
I fell in love with the mystery of Fenghuang (凤凰) Town. It is ancient and ethereal; its stilted buildings seem to float as if they had grown from the muddy banks of the Tuojiang River. The 300-year-old town reveals itself in the way it transforms throughout the day—from a peaceful, hazy place in the morning, where the quiet is filled only by the chirping of birds and the rhythm of crickets, into an intoxicating world of nighttime debauchery. As darkness falls, the streets come alive with lights, karaoke, cigarette smoke, and a kind of wild energy.

It’s no wonder that Fenghuang has been renamed by its inhabitants as Ancient Phoenix Town, after the sacred, mythical bird associated with good fortune and local legends. I learned that the city has no formal religion and instead carries a tradition of witchcraft; suddenly, it made sense that I had become bewitched by its charm.
pRACTICAL
MAGIC
a spell of "bad" luck
In such a picturesque town, for the first time, I felt I had captured the best photographs of my life.
Then my camera stopped working.
An error message. Corrupted images. A black screen.
Ten minutes later, I lost my phone in the river.
Defeated, I returned to the hotel, wondering if some strange spell had been cast. But without my camera, I was forced to surrender -- to notice the moments I'd otherwise have missed while trying to capture them.
And somehow, that surrender became its own kind of alchemy.
What emerged were images I could never have created intentionally: imperfect, mysterious, almost conjured. Maybe that’s the magic... when we release control, something more beautiful finds its way through.
FENG HUANG
The WAY TO HEAVEN
