Before We Explain the World

Photography by Lu Heng

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Life Itself

At a table, beside a road, beneath a lamp. Photographs from far-off travels also hold life within arm’s reach.

6Life Itself

At the Table

Story 45 of 51 · 6 photographs

A city fills the window, but a pot of flowers is close enough to touch. Move closer still: a fold in a napkin, the bright rim of a lid, light caught in a glass. Then yellow flowers draw the eye back toward distant mountains.

  1. Red flowers in a white pot stand on a sunlit table, with city rooftops and towers beyond.
    317

    Flowers above the rooftops

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  2. A hand tilts a stemmed glass with a dark berry floating in a pale drink. Red flowers and cups sit on the table, with the city blurred beyond.
    318

    A glass, a berry, a city

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  1. Black-and-white photograph of a single flower tucked into an upright folded napkin, against a softly blurred room.
    319

    A flower in the fold

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  2. A small pale container with a dark lid rests on folded embroidered cloth on a dark table. Black-and-white photograph.
    320

    On a folded cloth

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  1. A stemmed glass on a coaster catches warm light, with a reflection on the dark table and blurred lights behind it.
    321

    A glass catching the light

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  2. Yellow flowers and green leaves rise from a patterned clear glass vase on a reflective table, with blue mountains blurred behind them.
    322

    Yellow against blue

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