Shanghai-based photographer Guanling Chen explores themes of love, loss, vulnerability, and the romance of human relationships in her series, “When I leave, give me flowers.” Focusing her gaze on people, objects, and landscapes, Chen attempts to capture her memories of the past, traces of life, or images of what the future may hold in the series, which expresses her “restrained and attached” emotions towards family, friends, and lovers, “or even a loving and hesitant attitude towards everything.” Linking her insecurities about loss to her longing for love, Chen likens this duality to the beauty and fragility of flowers: “an encounter is like a flower, beginning with flowers and ending with flowers. When I leave, give me no flowers.”

See more from the series below!