Civil Twilight
Photography is an elegiac art, a twilight art.
—Susan Sontag, "On Photography.S"
文：Yangyang Li
Civil twilight is a meteorological term that refers to the time after sunset or before sunrise when there is no sun but there is an afterglow or twilight. Hanlin Mu's photographic project Civil twilight concerns the people who have disappeared near Ocean Beach, San Francisco during this time of day. His photographic images reveal the dangers and sorrows behind the natural beauty and remind us of our reverence for nature.
The photographs, though devoid of the sun, subtly capture its light bouncing off the waves, hinting at the dreamlike twilight hues.
Civil Twilight" a photographic oeuvre, dissects the deceptive allure of nature's ambivalence through a series of poignant and evocative images. By casting a spotlight on the paradox of the serene yet perilous Ocean Beach, the project invites the viewer to tread the precarious line between the sublime beauty and inherent danger of our natural world.
Imbued with memories of a childhood spent near the sea in China, the artist navigates the tragic realities of nature's power, a truth made hauntingly tangible by the loss of a friend's father to the tumultuous sea. The project resonates with this personal narrative while connecting with the collective consciousness through tales of missing persons around Ocean Beach.
"Civil Twilight" inspired by a heartbreaking missing person poster and subsequent news revelation, delves into the tragic, unsolved mysteries shrouding the beach. The photographer meticulously recreates scenes based on local news reports, blending elements of documentation and artistic interpretation. The intention is twofold: to illuminate the dangers lurking beneath the enticing façade of nature and to investigate how the seemingly trivial details of life can evolve into profound narratives.
Each image in "Civil Twilight" is shot during the transitional period it's named after, intentionally focusing on the surroundings and blurring the human element to infuse an air of mystery. The photographs, though devoid of the sun, subtly capture its light bouncing off the waves, hinting at the dreamlike twilight hues. This artistic decision both underscores the deceptive beauty of the twilight sea and amplifies the enduring spirit of hope. While these stories are steeped in tragedy, the hope that some missing persons might still be found alive lingers.
"Civil Twilight" is an artful juxtaposition of nature's beauty and threat, capturing the ethereal moments between existence and disappearance, and igniting a beacon of hope amid the enveloping despair.
From the perspective of a bystander, the photographer uses newspapers, the Internet and other news channels to reconstruct the cases of people disappearing from the beach in the local news, and to speculate and recreate the scenes shortly before the victims’ deaths. Most of these images were taken during the civil twilight period. Under his lens, oranges, yellows, golds, and pinks and purples are reflected in the sky and on the seemingly serene sea. People linger, run, play, walk in the foam of the waves, or have conversations on the beach.
Hanlin Mu's camera is not only about sunsets on the beach, but also conveys the tragedies behind the scenery and infinite sadness in a very poetic tone. Sunset is the final moments of the daylight. In the afterglow of the sky, people often feel the remembrance of the light and their past before the darkness falls. In viewing this collection of photographs, we are reminded that they are about the final moments of people's lives, and that beautiful landscapes are often dangerous and untouchable.
The very medium of photography is the best proof of impermanence. The essence of the medium lies in the fragility, the changeability, the certainty of death of a person or an object, in freezing the moment in the flow of time and witnessing its passing. The photographs we have taken often take us back to a moment in time to which we can never return. This is how we remember our companions who have left us: the photographic image replaces the presence of the photographed as a substitute, which precisely proves the absence of the photographed. Hanlin Mu's images are a reproduction of the victims’ last moments, which is directly related to the theme of death and coincides with the nature of photography itself as a display of "absence" and immediacy. In the series, he makes extensive use of silhouettes, or makes the faces of the people not clearly visible, to convey the sense of fragmentation and incompleteness of the story. He divides the series into three groups of people —"One Woman", "Two Children", "The Victim". In anonymity the identity-based image becomes an index, pointing to the uncounted number of people who disappeared on the beach.
In Civil twilight, Hanlin Mu's technique of fictionalizing scenes based on real events is reminiscent of filmmaking. This work blurs the line between fiction and reality - creating virtual "real" photographic images based on real cases. When viewed, these "photographs of the final moments" are highly believable: children playing and dancing, surfers looking out into the unknown water, crowds on the beach, dogs chasing crows…… At this moment, the "documentary" nature of the photographic medium creates a subtle chemical reaction with its imagined essence.
In Anthropology of Images, Hans Belting refers to Cindy Sherman's photographic series Untitled Film Stills as a series of stereotypical on-screen images of women that confuse the viewer with the medium of the work, as the viewer mistakes the photographs for stills from Hollywood films of the 50s and 60s. As a fictional narrative, Civil twilight is highly believable, with shots of the characters in their natural state, but also environmental aerials and portrayal of their "remains": children's toys, sand-filled mineral water bottles filled with sand, lounge chairs on the beach, etc. At the same time, these images are taken with different photographic media - digital cameras, Polaroid, film - parodying the variety of news photographs and the diversity of channels for collecting information about the images and displaying varying degrees of clarity and quality. The series of photographs gives the false impression that this is a collection of news photo.
In Civil Twilight, the series of photographs leads one to believe that the photographs are news photographs, or still frames from a short documentary film. The series was originally printed in newspapers, a medium that embodies the ephemeral nature of time, and likewise parodies the medium of the news photograph. Reports of the missing only appear in the pages of that day's newspaper, a fleeting moment in time, and only the image proves that they once existed, but that the once existed is undeniably irrevocable.
All these characteristics construct an ambiguous relationship between Hanlin Mu's creative photography, photojournalism and authenticity. In the dance with authenticity, the images become more fragmented and fleeting. Nonetheless, in the final photograph of Civil twilight, the beach-side house reflects three rays of the sun, standing out against the darkness that envelops the beach. The waves bear witness to the daily changes; the sea is relentless. After darkness falls, humans still watch for the dead. Will any of their shadows migrate back to here again?
About Artist
An innovative fine art photographer driven by a true passion for capturing life's moments through a lens, with a strong background in fine art photography, graphic design, and digital marketing. As a freelance photographer, I have honed my skills through diverse projects that showcase my dedication to artistic expression and visual storytelling. Recently, I have expanded my expertise to include AI image generation using Midjourney, exploring the impact of technology on the future of photography. My unique blend of artistic background and cutting-edge technology skills enables me to create visually captivating and thought-provoking images that not only connect with audiences but also push the boundaries of the photographic medium.