It is said that hope is what makes life goes on. It is a positive mechanism that drives humans to maintain the determination to accomplish something deemed impossible. It might sound abstract and farfetched, but the idea of telling story about hope was so fascinating that I, as a photographer, always dream to capture.

After countless days of observation, years of travel, nothing seemed to match the image of hope wrapping around my head. Then came the day in February 2020, at Myanmar’s Inle Lake. It was a typical day in winter, when the mist over the river emerged and the morning light softly started to show. If a little bit higher, the sun would be in the perfect position in the gloomy sky.

Expecting just an ordinary boring scene, the corner of my eyes caught the hired fisherman, who took a brief break during the shooting, lighted his friend’s cigarette as the first rays of the sun shining through the clouds. My instinct told me to press the shutter, or this split second would be gone forever.

It’s the moment I knew that hope is real.
It’s the moment I knew that there’s still hope.