Photo Exhibit at Zarah Offers New Close-Up of Beijing
For those of us who call the northern capital home, roaming Beijing has more often than not become less about travel guides and more about intuition. I find that magic here happens when you walk your soles off, without a specific itinerary — simply taking in every corner, sight and detail.
Then again, it’s not like Scottish photographer Kyle Bogue would need this piece of advice. After all, he’s turned his own explorations of Beijing into a stunning and quite refreshing artistic practice. His atypical urban photography caught my attention at a Christmas market, so it was a pleasure to meet again at Café Zarah on the occasion of the vernissage of his solo exhibition, titled We Are Everywhere.
What’s his subject, you ask? Tune in for my interview with Kyle if you want to find out more!
Q
Lovely to see you again, Kyle. Tell us, please — how did your photography journey start in Beijing, and what’s the premise behind We Are Everywhere?
A
I first arrived here in 2018, armed with a digital camera that I hoped would help me capture all the famous tourist attractions. However, within a year I realized that my photography was increasingly focusing on a more unusual, small-scaled side of Beijing. And by that I mean, I dropped landmarks to focus on small objects that I’d find on the roadside. The weird and the wonderful —that’s what really informs my photography. If I were to define the creative concept behind my art, it would be something like “finding beauty in mess”.
Beijing truly is my playground. Beyond the immediate differences with my hometown, the walls of Beijing struck me the most. They’re covered in all sorts of stuff: leaflets, posters, stamps. I started photographing everything with the intent of showing people back home what I initially saw as this slightly negative oddity. But, gradually I noticed that to every wall there was a unique stage of degradation. All of a sudden, I was discovering a new kind of beauty that soon expanded more broadly into Beijing’s architecture and nature.
Q
Interesting. Plenty of us certainly wouldn’t know how to look beyond the quotidian. So what is it that you spot yourself?
A
There is something to the natural texture and formation of deterioration which I really enjoy taking photographs of. And, luckily for me to constantly build on my body of work, it’s everywhere around me —thus, the title of the exhibition. I walk out with my phone and camera and take my time to find the pictures all around. Perhaps locals and other people won’t think there’s any inherent beauty to many of my images, but you really have to get down to the tiny, minuscule details. Where man built a city, nature has joined forces with time to creep its way right back, and there’s something endlessly fascinating for me there.
Q
You can’t reinvent your everyday without an intent, playful gaze, that’s for sure. Would you happen to have a favourite spot? And, is there a complex ritual to your creative process?
A
Exactly, though I dare say it really isn’t difficult to find beauty everywhere in Beijing. If I had to choose one specific spot, it would be perhaps the area near Tonghui River. Yes, I do love bodies of water and the erosion they often exert around. But, I don’t stick to any particular street for long. I would be missing out on new places! And, my photography is actually fairly casual. What I like, in terms of shape, shading or colour, I capture in a photograph —I may snap 200 of them and still have no idea which four I’ll choose once I get home and upload my loot on to my laptop. Editing is minimal. Slight changes to colour and contrast, and then of course my one special star guest that must always be present.
A very special character lurks around in Kyle Bogue’s photographs
Q
Oh, yes, we spotted him — a little dragon, right? Will you make the introductions?
A
Sure! Each of my photographs come with a tiny yet significant addition —a signature of sorts, if you will, a cartoonish dragon. He is a testimony to my fun side, as well as a challenge for viewers to riddle, à la Where’s Wally? The thing is, back in February 2022 I wanted to write a children’s book about the adventures of a cartoon dragon. Eventually, he became this kind of force pushing me to really devote myself to my photography instead, for the time being. There was only one requisite: it had to remain playful and open-minded, much in the spirit of a child.
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Q
Do you have any favorite photographs or artists that have exerted an influence in your style?
A
Not really, actually. If there’s one thing that I actually want my photography to convey, as vague as it may sound, it's that I cannot constrain my interests to one particular thing. I really love everything I get to see, through peaks of creativity and the occasional dry spell alike.
We Are Everywhere is happening at Café Zarah until Mar 29. The café is open 9am-midnight Sunday to Thursday and 9am-1am Friday to Saturday. Entry is free.
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Images: courtesy of Kyle Bouge and Zarah
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