Tampa-based photographer Rui Wang, originally from China, has released a new photobook titled "Not Everything Was Seen" that explores the art of capturing moments that exist just beyond full visibility. Wang's cross-disciplinary approach to analog photography focuses on preserving memories that tend to slip away into obscurity, creating images that invite viewers to step forward when the photograph holds back.
Wang's artistic philosophy centers on what he calls "gentle participation," where pictures become mirrors rather than statements. "A reflection on glass, a figure behind a curtain, dusk light softening a street corner – these are places where presence is felt without being fully declared," Wang explains. His ambient photography style acknowledges scenes without claiming ownership of them, positioning him as an eternal outsider observing events like Bruno Ganz's guardian angel in the film "Wings of Desire."
Growing up in Taiyuan, China, Wang's artistic foundation was shaped by traditional painting and calligraphy, which taught him to appreciate line, rhythm, and negative space. These early influences now inform his photographic work, creating what he describes as a "low humming narrative" that allows his film images to breathe. "I want the images to breathe so viewers can meet them halfway. The almost visible matters because life often happens at the edges – in the pause, the afterglow, the trace that remains," Wang notes.
Wang's background in design significantly influences his photographic practice, with structures from his design work appearing as traces of sequencing and pacing through recurring motifs and measured distances between images. Rather than creating objective structures like in his design projects, Wang feeds emotion into his photographs to guide viewers through what he describes as their own sabbatical through atmospheric landscapes. "I wanted to treat holiday photos not as souvenirs, but as a way of noticing," he says, referring to the casual, everyday snapshots that capture quiet moments between places and ordinary details people usually overlook.
The photographer works primarily with two analog cameras: a Contax G2 and a Mamiya 6 MF. The Contax G2 enables quick reactions to small gestures, while the Mamiya 6 MF allows Wang to slow down and construct careful framing. This analog approach inherently changes the pacing that instant film cameras would accelerate, allowing Wang to meter purposefully and pay closer attention to light and timing.
The resulting photographs capture fleeting moments that often escape the awareness of the subjects themselves. Some of Wang's most striking images include spots of light on the ground, panoramas connecting several people, and scan lines in CRT televisions – details invisible to the naked eye but retrievable through the camera and a patient, outside perspective. Wang deliberately selected what he calls "fragments that felt like notes to the self rather than postcards, moments that suggest a story without explaining it."
"Not Everything Was Seen" represents Wang's commitment to photographing typical holiday scenes as if he were a ghost passing through, documenting the spaces where life happens at the margins. His work demonstrates how photography can serve as a form of quiet observation, capturing the atmosphere and emotion of moments that might otherwise be forgotten.
