Surreal Photography: Illusions and Dreams | Daphne Alexis Ho

In the photographic series from Karuizawa, Japan, I explore the ephemeral and ethereal qualities of the natural world through the lens of zen aesthetics.
Each image is a window into the liminal space where reality blurs and distorts, where the familiar is transformed into the unfamiliar through a new vantage point. What was once firmly grounded, now presents itself in a state of suspense, inviting the viewer to reevaluate the nature of perception. These transient moments, fragile and fleeting, present themselves as an in-between. As if the world is holding its breath.
Ultimately, the series represents my ongoing exploration of the concept of ma (a pause in time, an interval, or emptiness in space), and the liminal space that exists between the physical and the metaphysical, the seen and the unseen.

Daphne Alexis Ho was born in 1975 in Hong Kong. Her work has been exhibited in Melbourne, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Sanya and Hong Kong. Daphne’s work is characterised by a strong and elegiac quality, the outcome of the artist’s focus on zen aesthetics, such as the concepts of mono no aware (the pathos of things), wabi (subdued, austere beauty), sabi (rustic patina), and ma (interval).
Capturing the impermanent nature of life, Ho’s monochromatic landscapes evoke profound emotional sensibilities, ushering in a worldview where the familiar and mundane becomes poetic, and at times erratic, reveries of time.
Daphne Alexis Ho is a graduate of Bachelor of Fine Art (2011) and Master of Fine Art (2014) at Hong Kong Art School x RMIT, and Doctor of Philosophy (2018) at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia.