By any rate, The Garden of Earthly Delights is a masterpiece. Created by Early Netherlandish artist Hieronymus Bosch between 1490 and 1510, the triptych shows the creation of the world on the biblical Third Day when it closes, and the serenity of the Garden of Eden, the lushness of human life, and the horrors of hell when it opens. The comprehensiveness of the painting fascinates me as much as its magical, almost surrealist, rendition of the human-scape; much ahead of his time, Bosch has captured an image of the Anthropocene.

And perhaps this is why I chose the painting as a frame for my ten photos. The triptych not only aims to encapsulate the whole world and its creation, and so mirrors my intentions closely, but also endows ordinary occurrences with a touch of compassion, tenderness, and magic. Through the artist’s lens, even mundane existences become immensely interesting, and who is to say that such a representation does not reflect back to its author? I too want to present my world as comprehensively as I can, and lay the stones of understanding that lead my readers — for indeed you read an image instead of merely looking at it — to my own private realm through a yellow brick road, paved with similar intentions, hidden clues, and beautiful scenery along the way.

As someone always off to accomplish solo side quests — bird watching, sun/moon catching, gazelle sighting, to name a few — I was happy to start this assignment for a class, because as much fun as these side quests are, the enjoyment is multiplied when somebody is watching. The first panel, titled “Morning,” is for me a board of evidence for serendipity, as if I can trace between movement and stillness, darkness and light, air and water, searching for moments that touch me in their own quiet ways. The first panel is feathery, and delicate; it is the time between dreams and reality where we are half-awake and being hugged by epiphanic visions. I struggled to put this magic into spoken words, for I have taken these images for their beauty, and I am not sure of my relation to it; I have been a mere observer where this beauty has caught me out of the blue, like as Rilke puts it, the beginning of some terror. They are beautiful with or without me, and they are part of my world simply because I am lucky to bear their witness.

![Image description: Panel 2: Day - NYUAD swimming pool. End ID] (https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2023/09_24_2023/solstice-photo3.jpg )

The second panel, Day, has more of myself in it. I chose these pictures specifically because they relate to me and pinpoint me on one’s radar of imagination. Claudius’ Corner tells you how I smell (Mugler’s Angel perfume), what makeup I use (one of the darker matte lipsticks from Chanel), what my music tastes are (classical rock and roll) — these are all windows into my personal life. The Intergalactic Heels, like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, have taken me places I wouldn’t expect to go, and their glitters are as beautiful as the universe. I chose it for my love of science fiction, for my connection with my family (a gift from my mother), and for their ability to inspire imagination which is one of the most precious properties of photography to me. The picture of the screening room is a symbol of my love for cinema and the ways it has changed me for it was the first to tell me that images could tell secret stories of their own. It also stands for my love for art in general, as classical paintings have influenced my style of photography when I examine the pictures I took. The beach is a testimony of my childhood and teenage years spent roaming the streets of Shenzhen, always close to the sea, always sniffing it in the wind. This panel is about memory.