Your name
Cora Sun
Place of birth
Yunnan, China
Place where you live now
Budapest, Hungary
3 words to describe you
a curious and sensitive maverick
Why do you take pictures?
I started to take pictures when I was 15 years old, since then it has been always a way for me to observe the world, and express my emotions.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Museums, films, travels and internet
Who are your influences?
Life itself
What determines the subject matter you choose?
1. There is a huge space for story-telling.
2. The topic should be exciting enough.
3. I picked the subject often from the life experience.
What impact would you like your art to have?
I hope some people can find my work inspiring.
What artwork do you never get bored with?
Photo books and photo magazines, I could look at them over and over again.
Is there anything you want to add?
no

Journey to Home (2019 - 2021)
Project statement

Journey to Home examines the personal connections with the urban change of my hometown Chuxiong, a small city in southwest China. Just like many other cities in China, the old town in my hometown inevitably faces the same fate of being demolished and transformed into a brand new business district. Dramatic changes that occurred are also changing people's lives. This project tells the story of the city, people, and memory in a metaphorical way. It is told in four interconnecting chapters about the transition of the city, changing of times for people, cherishing the past memory, finding self-identity through this precious journey, more importantly reconnecting with my family and witnessing the change of my hometown after years of being away. Through Journey to Home, I ask and attempt to answer the fundamental question, is this change indicative of a denial of the past or a bright new future of the Chinese Dream?

cora sun
@suncora

Chapter I - Hometown Redesign

This chapter documents my hometown undergoing urban transformation. Returning home after five years, my hometown has presented me with different signs of life with newly built districts and an ever disappearing old town. It was destructive for me to accept the fact that places, where I used to hang out in childhood, don't exist anymore.

Chapter II - There is a light that never goes out

This chapter is a study of my self-identity that derives from my memory of growing up in China. It started with extreme exhaustion from being dysfunctional, emotional, lost, and heart broken for many years. While making this chapter, I was having tremendous inner transformation while my hometown was physically changing. It was a journey of healing. Photography is therapeutic. It helped me reconnect with my brother, mother and childhood friends. There is no right or wrong, love is the greatest gift.

Chapter III - The lost memory of us

This chapter questions whether collective memory still exists and whether the sense of belonging has been weakened after un lieu de mémoire vanished. I used archival family photos from my relatives whose house was sacrificed for the urban development.

Chapter IV - Looking back to the future

The old town of my hometown transformed into a brand new business center. Enormous modern buildings slip into people's life almost imperceptibly. The similarities of modern buildings gives me the chance to photograph a Chinese city in Budapest. I imitate the propaganda of a promised future from real estate advertisements to show we gradually adapt to the future way of living.