THE FIRST TIME I SAW啟迪
Photographer WING SHYA on visiting the Peruvian Amazon攝影師夏永康首次前往秘魯亞馬遜森林的心路歷程
I’VE ALWAYS LIVED
in cities – Hong Kong is my home – always busily balancing work and life.
I’ve never lived in the wild, which is exactly why I wanted to visit Peru and the epic Amazon rainforest with some friends.
I was looking for an experience that would bring me closer to nature and one of the great natural wonders of the world. We would be staying in simple, basic accommodation; eating local produce and home-cooked Peruvian food. All I wanted to do was relax, but that trip changed me in ways I didn’t expect.
Sure, the Peruvian Amazon is beautiful: but that wasn’t what was so unusual to me coming from Hong Kong. The unusual thing is the Amazon environment itself: you can feel the magic of nature. There were flowers, plants, trees, butterflies, fish and birds everywhere. Seeing these animals truly in the wild, I felt the power and energy of life.
I always thought the meaning of life was to work hard and make money. But after this Amazon trip, I think differently. Without sounding too cheesy, I have seen the power of the universe.
I’m a photographer by trade. This Amazon trip taught me to enjoy the process of photography, to enjoy working with my colleagues rather than just worrying about the end result. I didn’t expect to feel any differently after travelling there. I changed unexpectedly, which was a nice surprise.
Wing Shya’s 25-year retrospective exhibition, Acting Out, is at the Shanghai Center of Photography until 10 January. forwardassembly.com 我一生都在城市居住，香港是我的家；而我總是忙於在工作與生活之間取得平衡。
我從未試過住在森林裡，因此與幾個朋友結伴，前往秘魯的亞馬遜熱帶雨林，體驗一下森林中生活的滋味。
我想跟大自然更接近，尤其是接近一個如此偉大的自然環境。我們住的地方十分簡樸，吃的都是當地的農產品和自家烹調的秘魯菜式。我本來打算好好地輕鬆一下，可是這趟旅程卻為我帶來意想不到的改變。
秘魯的亞馬遜熱帶雨林風景當然美麗，但是美麗的風景到處都有，我不感到有什麼特別。特別之處是亞馬遜本身的環境：你可以感到大自然神奇的魔力。那裡各式花草樹木、蝴蝶、魚類和飛鳥到處可見，見到這些動物在野外自由自在地生活，我感受到生命那種生生不息的動力。
我向來認為人生的意義就是努力工作和賺錢，但是經過這趟亞馬遜之行後，我的想法改變了。我在那裡感受到宇宙的力量，希望這樣說不會太老套吧。
我的職業是攝影師，亞馬遜之行讓我學會享受攝影的過程，享受與同事合作的樂趣，而並非只著眼於最終的結果。出發之前，我沒有預期那個地方會帶給我什麼改變；可是出乎我意料之外，旅程結束時我發現自己有所改變，實在令人驚喜。
夏永康的25周年回顧展《越軌》於上海攝影藝術中心舉行，即日起至1月10日為止。forwardassembly.com