Hi folks,

You may or may not know that the cover photo of Mountains of Change depicts a Hmong boy standing and watching a group of people bring a model of Fansipan Peak down to Sa Pa square for display. The details are not very clear, because the photo looks very blurry.

I usually prefer sharp photos with a large depth of field and a high enough shutter speed, but when choosing the cover photo for Mountains of Change, I ended up with a blurry photo.

The main reason for this decision is that the photo shows the transformation in my thinking: when I first started this project, I observed and felt that everything that was happening in Sa Pa was very complicated and beyond my understanding at that time, the traces of thoughts are like the details on the photo were all faintly visible, immersed in shapes and colors. After I gathered enough information and knowledge about the development of Sa Pa, this story became so clear that it was haunting.

This photo completely summarizes my psychological transformation during the process of making this photobook, in addition, the content in the photo also closely follows the themes that the book evokes.

I took this photo in 2018, when I still brought a lot of equipment along, I took this photo with a Fujifilm GW690III camera, using Fujifilm Provia 100F positive film, digitized with an Epson V700 scanner.

A few words to share about the cover photo, hoping to find sympathy with readers.

Best regards and see you again,

PS: The photo book Mountains of Change has been opened for sale on different channels, please see this link to buy the book.