“When I look at the sky, all existence has a fiery hue.
When I look at the earth, everywhere is covered with water.
The sky heaves a sigh of exhaustion,
The earth feels a sense of great sorrow.
When I observe myself closely,
I can see you in my eye.”
— Abdulkhaber Qadir Erkan, “To See”

I was born and raised in Northern Xinjiang. Now living in the UK, I find myself tracing the distance between here and home through the act of looking. This ongoing hometown project is a return to faces and ground — fragments of a place that continues to live inside me.
Trained as a cinematographer, I see photography as a way of listening to light — to how it lingers on walls, drifts through dust, or pauses before disappearing. Each image holds a quiet memory of belonging and loss.

Learn more here