Conceptual nominee

Crumbling World is a fine art autobiographical self-portrait project that is based on my personal experience and expresses my inner world. I struggled with physical and mental illness for a long time, which made me become a person who locks himself in his world, and the world is crumbling. The project is a testimony to my suffering and a symbol of my rebirth. By capturing self-portraits in the natural environment, I created a surreal atmosphere to intuitively express complex emotions and frankly present my self-awareness. Through the creation, I have been trying to evaluate and rediscover who I am, and it gave me a chance to ante up and face some hard truths about myself. I want my audiences can recognize the inner expression of a psychopath through my work. Also, whether my audiences have experienced hardship or are going through suffering, they can feel the power of healing, find the appropriate way to vent themselves, and dare to face the unknown and themselves.

Bowen Xing is a fine art and commercial photographer living in Jinan, China. He was born in Jinan, China, a city famous for the springs and culture of Confucius and Mencius. When he was twelve, his father gave him his first camera as a birthday present. After that, capturing photographs became his favorite hobby, and being a professional photographer and artist had become his lifelong goal. He received his bachelor's degree in photography from the Qilu University of Technology in Jinan in 2016. After a year of engaging commercial photography in Boyang Photography Studio, in order to improve his photography skills and artistic cultivation, he came to the Academy of Art University at San Francisco to study MFA in photography, where he is learning more comprehensive photographic knowledge and skills; also he has discovered his passion in photography education. He completed his MFA in photography in fall 2021 and looks forward to sharing his experience and knowledge with university-level photography students.