My car is a special part of this time capsule because to me it was a mark in the symbolism of American freedom. When I found my '99 E320 for $4000 on Facebook marketplace, it fulfilled a part of me that felt like had been yearning since the day I dreamed of living in the United States. It is my first car and honestly it is beautiful enough to be one that someone would call their last. Growing up without a father had left certain gaps in learning "how to be a man" and parts of those gaps were healed through self learning how to change my tire, rolling under to change my oil, conditioning the leather seats and checking blown fuses etc.
My Canon A1 is my first film camera. Being a more video centric person in a digital age has always made photographed moments so taken for granted. Shooting on film changed my perspective on how I went about my digital work because there is truly something magical in the relationship between all the set up to getting the right shutter speed to prevent too much blur, while with a high enough aperture to still create depth to the moment I hit the shutter. It made me value the importance of each frame and gave me perspective of how powerful every moment should be to me.
My 852 tattoo was a huge part of my personal growth and re-evaluating my roots. Growing up in Hong Kong I loved our area code (8 5 2) and knew I would want ink of it. However, I wanted something meaningful. Something that allowed me to remember where I came from when I looked at it. So when I met Momo who specialized in ink work with ancient Chinese calligraphy (in this case Qin Dynasty) it was a no brainer for me to do a craft exchange with her and make a video. Working for an artist from home also felt like it healed parts of my torn roots. Since she is from mainland china and didnt speak much cantonese, we had to weave between Mandarin, Cantonese and English to fully understand each other. That taught me the language should really be a barrier because we are still friends and hangout to this day.