Fashioning San Francisco:

A Century of Style

This is a Fashion Collection in the De Young Museum, featuring 20th- and 21st-century women’s clothing in the United States from the most famous designers. Dozens of fine and ancient dresses stood in the dimly lit showroom and among the gaps in the crowd, as if waiting to dance with the new era. The dresses in the showroom are not all Victorian flashy and glamorous, there are simple but ingenious single-color dresses that will never go out of fashion, and also pure black gothic queen dresses with a full range of aura.

One of my favorite dress (later I learned it’s called Junon), has a shiny mermaid tail like structure. The designer’s “Junon” gown, along with its sister design, “Venus,” represents the pinnacle of his creativity. Named in honor of the Roman goddess of marriage and fertility, “Junon” is formed from diaphanous layers of silk tulle, with glittering sequin embroidery on curved skirt flounces meant to evoke the feathers of the goddess’s favorite bird, the peacock.

Looking at all the fine art surrounding me in this small gallery, a line I read a few days ago came to my mind: "Good art should make the audience's mood fluctuate, no matter if it is a good mood or a bad mood". Feeling my thumbs touching the camera, I wondered what exactly makes me like and good at photography as an art.

If I have to talk about "talent", I would rather consider my talent to be empathy - receiving emotions - and expressing them in a figurative way, such as a steady picture. While this talent may not be seen as useful in contexts such as working or contributing to technological advancements, I believe that emotions represent the true essence of an individual rather than productivity. Emotions are what define a person and distinguish them from thousands of others across time and reality. And the thing I'm holding right now, a camera, is a powerful tool that has the power to magically freeze time and capture an emotion in its eternal form.

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The Fire From Paradise

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To be continued...