The Photographer Who Reinterprets China’s Oldest Book of Poems

Dusting off a millennia-old book of poems, Taca Sui looked to the Book of Odes (the oldest surviving collection of Chinese poetry, compiled by Confucius) for his hazy, silver gelatin prints that deliver the texts in a contemporary landscape—one that’s filled with dreamy, flat-gray glimpses of the outdoors. “My search for the broad mountains, flowing rivers, ruined walls and ancient paths of the Book of Odes felt much like a mysterious engagement with an absent partner,” he recalls. “During the shoot, it was almost as if my emotions and artistic direction were under the influence of some unknown force.”