/ 2025 / Special / Macro

A Telescope for the Ordinary

  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Photographer
    Shu I Jen, Taiwan
  • Date of Photograph
    14th Jan 2024 , 13th Jun 2024 , 1st Apr 2025

I explored the connection between something as vast as the cosmos and the intimacy of the urban everyday.
The universe I carry within me is projected onto the microcosm of the world around me.

These images are the result of a deliberate shift in perception: the act of turning the lens not toward the heavens, but downward — into the textures, surfaces, and detritus of the city.
The camera is a telescope, turned inward.

It invites viewers to look closer at the ordinary, and in doing so, to discover entire worlds hidden in plain sight.