Tianming Zhou

Tianming Zhou (Alaric) is a Chinese filmmaker and photographer currently based in the USA. He grew up in Mainland China and completed his bachelor’s degree in Hong Kong, where he developed a passion for street photography and film studies. Before pursuing his MFA at Duke University, he worked as a documentary editor and independent filmmaker for fictional films. His MFA experiences convinced him to further experiment with the boundary between fiction and non-fiction, frequently expressed through meta-films and docu-fictions. During this period, he also expanded his artistic practice into video art and expanded cinema installations.

I believe in the impossibility of objectivity in documentary work. My artistic practice, therefore, explores the fluid boundaries between fiction and non-fiction, using moving images and still photography to capture the nuances of memory and the fleeting nature of human perception. I deconstruct and construct personal narratives through an interplay of languages and diverse media, where words and visuals, sound and image, come together to form a simulated first-person experience. My work is raw and analog in aesthetics, avoiding over-polished refinement and commercialization in favor of the truth in storytelling. By preserving the unvarnished texture of human emotion and language expression, I see my work as a liminal space connecting viewers to an impossible authenticity.