GAO HongRu:

I am a graduate student majoring in visual communication at the University of Macau. During the course I developed a keen interest in photography and planned to write photography as my master's thesis. During my studies, I learned that from Louis Daguerre’s first photograph of a landscape outside a window to contemporary photography, different photographic schools have explored and innovated a variety of shocking new visions. The moment I picked up a camera, I was also looking for new visual images in life using different media. During this time, I experimented with combining photography with different observation methods, such as using a gem microscope to explore microscopic scenes inside gemstones.

Once by chance, I’ve learned about Gem identification. In the process of determining whether the stone is genuine or not processed, I discovered the beautiful world of nature after thousands of refinements from the seams of the stone.

In my eyes, the stone is full of spirituality, the essence of heaven and earth, although it is silent, however, it hides vitality. I combine photography with modern scientific instruments, breaking through the limits of the naked eye, seeing the macro world in the microscopic, exploring tens of thousands of phenomena in the stone, seeing Sumeru in the stone and viewing the infinite in the palm of my hand, exploring the mystery of the evolution of life and the eternity of the moment.

Seeing the vast in the minuscule, I focus on the smallest of things, revealing through them infinite charm, timeless epochs, and the profound passage of ages. This has always been the essence of my creative pursuit.