Jiawei Wang

On a stage and tiered seating, where a single tree grows on thestage, many glowing lanterns hung from the branches. The lanterns represent wishes and imagined possibilities, while glitch-like distortions quietly surround the scene— suggesting that even within beauty, something is starting to break.
To Dream, To Crash, To Rebuild Again, 2025, photo. Photographer: Jiawei Wang (Vivian)
I stand alone on the beach, surrounded by translucentgravestones under a giant moon. The world feels cold and uncanny. This image expresses the moment when reality hits—when dreams no longer protect you, and you're forced to confront uncertainty, grief, and pressure.
To Dream, To Crash, To Rebuild Again, 2025, photo. Photographer: Jiawei Wang (Vivian)
In a grand hall. I hold a paintbrush high, surrounded by goldenbrushstrokes and my own paintings on the wall. This is the stage of rebuilding—not returning to old dreams but constructing something new with what I’ve learned. It’s a reminder to keep creating, to begin again without fear of failure.
To Dream, To Crash, To Rebuild Again, 2025, photo. Photographer: Jiawei Wang (Vivian)

TO DREAM, TO CRASH, TO REBUILD AGAIN

My project is a surreal photographic series that traces a journey from dreams to reality, and finally to the reconstruction of one’s own world. As I approach graduation, this work becomes both a reflection and a conclusion of my three years of study — a visual realisation of an idea first conceived in my earliest semester. Through staged and symbolic imagery, the series expresses my shifting emotions between idealism, disillusionment, and renewal, echoing the uncertainty and hope that accompany the transition into an unknown future.

As an emerging photographer working across both analogue and digital processes, my practice explores the intersection between reality and imagination. I am drawn to constructing poetic visual narratives that translate internal emotions into surreal yet tangible forms — using photography as a way to navigate transformation, memory, and the passage of time.

Instagram: w_weiiiiii

Jiawei Wang