a visual dialogue

In this A Visual Dialogue we paired Timjune Tianjun Li working in the short days and frozen landscapes of Iceland and Juliana Jacyntho in the summer heat of Brazil. They connected and delved into philosophical musings in their written exchange which accompanies their images.

synchronized chronicles

Juliana - Nov 30, 2023
Hi Timjune,

It’s a pleasure to start this Visual Dialogue with you and to have this opportunity of exchanging our thoughts and experiences by using our photography – I thought it would be nice to start this dialogue by introducing myself – nice to virtually meet you. I’m a Brazilian photographer and visual artist, living in the craziest and biggest Brazilian city: Sao Paulo (which gets even busier at the end of the year with tropical storms and traffic jams and people going from one spot to another during xmas holidays). November has ended. This year is approaching its end, and I hope it has been a good journey for you. Next Saturday I’ll be 46yrs old and each December seems to me like a portal to start a new timeline, full of opportunities of growth and creativity, like a brand new white blank canvas.

I had the chance to look at your work and the images transported me to a dreamlike place. Feels good to be transported to the winter in my imagination, while I’m actually facing 40ºC here in the tropics.

I’m also currently pursuing a master’s degree in semiotics, and have been thinking a lot about the importance of the gesture in my artistic practice, the energy generated by our hands, the power of changing and transmuting the given reality.

There is an amazing book I’ve re-read lately called “Gestures”, by Czech-Brazilian philosopher Vilém Flusser, where he writes: “Liberdade é modificar o mundo dando-lhe significado.”, that I would translate to English as something like: “Freedom is to modify the world by giving it a meaning”.  In one way or another, photography does that while it works like a portal itself, through where we all can impress our unconscious and live our dreams or at least try to, doesn’it?

Timjune - Dec 3, 2023
It was such a pleasure reading through your words. I can feel the warmth flowing, and I am grateful that we connected through each other's eyes and minds in this universe.
Firstly, a belated happy birthday to you! As you step onto the threshold of a new year, may it be filled with opportunities for creativity and the realization of your dreams.
These days I moved to a new country, Iceland for a residency program. After finally settling down, I am able to sit down, in front of a window facing the snowy mountain and ocean, and begin our visual dialogue journey. It's fascinating that we are currently living in totally different climates, and our sensing of the environment could be so different but it makes it more interesting.
Likewise, delving into your portfolio was a captivating journey. Your unique approach, aesthetic, and the stories you tell through your lens are truly compelling.
 "Freedom is to modify the world by giving it meaning." - Thank you for sharing this beautiful quote, it's so inspirational that just like you mentioned, photography, the images we are making is the meaning and the messages we created in our free realm of  the mind and the tiny but important marks we carved on the earth.
I would also like to introduce myself briefly. I was born and raised in southeast China, and I moved to Finland to do my masters program in Visual Cultures and Contemporary Art. Likewise, I use photography to portrait the world in my imagination. I also use sounds, my singing voice, to express the world in my mind.

 As I sit here, gazing out at the snowy landscape, I am inspired by the thought-provoking ideas you've shared.
And I would like to start our visual dialogue with this photo below I took in Reykjavik, to respond to 'the freedom' that we chatted about.

How do we define "freedom" with the wind?

In the end, I would like to share a Icelandic traditional Christmas song that I heard from a theater performance last night and found beautiful and peaceful. Hope you enjoy it!
Nóttin Var Sú Ágæt Ein - Múm
https://music.apple.com/cn/album/n%C3%B3ttin-var-s%C3%BA-%C3%A1g%C3%A6t-ein/1323300726?i=1323300894&l=en-GB

Juliana - Dec 4, 2023
I read your message today before hitting the road from Ilhabela (a beautiful coastal Island near my city) to come back to Sao Paulo. During my trip, I kept thinking of how I would define freedom with the wind, following your great question. When the middle of the trip was approaching, my husband showed me a huge cumulonimbus cloud. I grabbed my camera and calmly started to follow her during my entire trip reflecting on our dialogue… Suddenly, it seemed to spread in the atmosphere and separate from its base, flowing up in the sky, it seemed to be a heart-like shape.

If Freedom is to modify a given reality, it seems that this cumulus nimbus got it right: I was not aware that such types of clouds are dangerous (e.g. an airplane should avoid them) but it decided to challenge its own nature and turned out to be something else, completely different (a graceful form) than what it was born to be (a scary thundercloud). Then I noticed that this heart-cumulonimbus-cloud was separated by a wire. Two sides of the same nature. Two sides of a narrative. The photo below you took in Reykjavik somehow shows a windsock flying in the wind despite the apparent prison the metallic fence suggests… It also has chosen its path to freedom and joy, no matter what happens around it.

This cloud and your windsock reminded me of Prof. Tim Ingold’s text about agency and animism: things are brought to life through their immersion in circulations: wind, our eyes, our interactions. A kite on the table is just an object. But a kite-in-the-air is a thing, an animated force that captivates us and our emotions – just like it might happen in our images, I believe:  “It is through their immersion in these circulations, then, that things are brought to life. You can demonstrate this by means of a simple experiment, which I have carried out with my students at the University of Aberdeen. Using a square of paper, matchstick bamboo, ribbon, tape, glue and twine, it is easy to make a kite. We did this indoors, working on tables. It seemed, to all intents and purposes, that we were assembling an object. But when we carried our creations to a field outside, everything changed. They suddenly leaped into action, twirling, spinning, nose-diving, and – just occasionally – flying. So what had happened? Had some animating force magically jumped into the kites, causing them to act most often in ways we did not intend? Of course not. It was rather that the kites themselves were now immersed in the currents of the wind. The kite that had lain lifeless on the table indoors had become a kite-in-the-air. It was no longer an object, if indeed it ever was, but a thing. As the thing exists in its being, so the kite-in-the-air exists in its flying. Or to put it another way, at the moment it was taken outdoors, the kite ceased to figure in our perception as an object that can be set in motion and became instead a movement that resolves itself into the form of a thing. (…). Much has been written on the relations between people and objects, guided by the thought that the difference between them is far from absolute. If people can act on objects in their vicinity, it is argued, can objects ‘act back’, causing them to do or allowing them to achieve what they otherwise could not. Yet in the very first theoretical move that sets things aside in order to focus on their ‘objectness’, they are cut off from the flow that bring them to life. We saw this with the kite. To think of the kite as an object is to omit the wind – to forget that it is, in the first place, a kite-in-the-air”. I wonder what other objects exists currently in your new country, in your surroundings that might be waiting for an interaction to “act back” in response to your eyes and camera.

Last but not least, I really enjoyed the Icelandic traditional Christmas song – thank you for sharing this beauty! The singer’s voice is so calm and deep, almost like a whisper. Speaking of whispering, it reminded me of Peruvian visual artist Cecilia Vicuña during her performance “the sequency of water” at the Venice Biennial of Art last year – I saved this video on Instagram to watch it from time to time since it really moved me the first time I watched it and heard Cecilia.

Shall we keep hearing the sounds of the wind, of the water, of the animated things that surround us! 😊

Timjune - dec 9, 2023


In the past few days, my artistic journey in Iceland has taken me through an open studio session, an artist talk, and a road trip to the outskirts of Reykjavík. It's intriguing to note the parallels between our life tracks – your recent road trip to the island and mine to the outskirts of Reykjavík. Life's synchronicities always add an extra magical layer of richness to our conversations.



Your reflections on animism and the connections we forge between our eyes and the objects that come into our sight were particularly thought-provoking. In comparison to painting,  photography bridges the human subjective experience directly to touchable objects in reality. It's a powerful medium that captures not just the external world but also the internal narratives we built around.



Returning to the question of defining freedom through the wind, your description of the cloud during your trip touched me deeply. It resonated with a personal experiment I conducted in a Helsinki forest months ago, and I would also love to share. As I walked freely, absorbing the surroundings, I observed fallen trees – victims of a recent storm. Some had stood there for decades or even centuries, their growth abruptly halted by the invisible, shapeless power of the wind. Attempting to map the wind's trajectory through the fallen trees, I discovered the challenge of tracking its elusive nature. The powerful wind, though mighty, is also influenced and altered by the barriers created by the fallen trees – a fascinating interplay of forces.



Attached is an image captured outside the city in Iceland. Taken from a moving car, the cloud appears to hang freely above the boundless ground. As the car speeds forward, the cloud seems to move with a sense of liberation. It prompts us to question whether it is truly free or merely another mirage shaped by the wind in our minds.

Juliana - dec 10, 2023
So touching it was reading the story about your experiment in Helsinki forest, it really got me thinking about this fascinating interplay of forces you wrote, about this synchronization we are experiencing through this visual dialogue how exchanging this deep energy of life is truly inspiring, it is what really moved us forward: the amazing energy that surrounds us.

Yesterday I attended a Paul McCartney’s concert for the 6th time - I’m a joyful fan of the Beatles and especially of Paul- I think it is amazing being 81 years old with lots of pulsing energy and passion, it makes me think of this type of generosity for spreading joy and emotion through art - this is what music and photography do with the surroundings in the end… spread the energy of love, joy, of inspiration.

I went to the concert last night right after receiving your message.

On the bottom of your photograph I could see what seemed to be the ground. Our ground even being separated by a huge ocean, living in such different countries, is definitely fulfilled by other people’s ENERGY OF LIFE ⚡️🤸🏼‍♀️ I’m sending you a piece of this amazing musical energy emitted and shared by almost 50K people that filled my heart with all the most elevated energy and joy. 

Timjune - dec 16, 2023
IIt's currently almost 3 am here in Reykjavik, and I'm nestled in a cozy corner of our artist residence, composing this email. The view outside my window reveals a different aspect of the ocean compared to my last time sitting here writing to you—this time, it's wild from the raging storm that has embraced Iceland this week.



Your photo of the audience is truly enchanting - it's about PEOPLE that coming together to sing in unison is a beautiful spectacle! 

Music and imagery, the harmony of sound and sight, is indeed a captivating exploration of self-expression and our connection to the world. As a musician and photographer actively involved in creating album artworks for musicians, I deeply resonate with this sentiment. There's magic in it, wouldn't you agree?



During my time in Reykjavik, I've made it a mission to immerse myself in the fascinating Icelandic music scene. I've attended numerous local concerts, encountered musicians I admire, and even engaged in discussions about potential future collaborations. It's heartening to see our paths align once again.



Attached is a photo I'd like to share—a snowy surface of a rock by the spring, with mist gracefully flowing through the air. I find its uniqueness and intrigue captivating.



On a musical note, "Carry That Weight" that you shared is also one of my favorite Beatles songs, and I've had the pleasure of performing it once. 

Juliana - dec 19, 2023
What is living in Iceland like? For me, who lives in a tropical country it seems enchantingly different and curious. This image of the sea reminds me of what the surface of the moon should look like, although I have never been there but in my dreams.

While your image reminds me of the moon, I’m sitting on a couch and the surface actually reminds of the soil on Mars (or at least what I imagine it looks like):

Timjune - dec 22, 2023
It's fascinating how we're sharing these moments simultaneously, albeit in vastly different climates. Your description of the surface of your couch resonates with my photo of a snowy rock. It's like Mars and the Moon, right? – our experiences may differ, yet there's a unique connection through our perspectives and thoughts. 

Here in Iceland, the weather has been moody and gloomy lately, with only 3-4 hours of daylight and temperatures ranging from -8 to 0 degrees Celsius. Today marks the winter solstice, bringing the longest darkness of the year. Despite this, people find ways to navigate through the darkness by coming together, singing Christmas carols, and enjoying music.

Is it a form of escapism, where we create an imaginary world or utopia through dreams to flee from the sometimes harsh reality? This notion brings to mind the film "Pan's Labyrinth," one of my favorites and a significant inspiration. As artists, we seem to be doing a similar thing—constructing a world through our creative minds and imagination, either to reflect on or escape from reality.



I'd like to share a photo from my walk to an industrial area near my artist residency.  I found it fascinating that the industrial building merged into the natural landscape.

Juliana - dec 24, 2023
II’m writing to you from Florianopolis, an island that is also the city where my husband was born and grew up, and where my in-laws live, in the southern region of Brazil.
Here’s my entry for today:
I couldn’t agree more with you on the importance of imagining new realities through our art. Actually, to build narratives is a manner of elaborating the meaning of life. I have been re-reading a book by American author Ursula Le Guin (The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction) that reminded me of the importance of “gleaning” little pieces of reality, gathering them to elaborate new harmonic stories of life, of living, a continuous process of creation of new imagined worlds and keep walking by telling stories. Speaking of stories I’ll definitely watch Pan’s Labyrinth following your clue, I haven’t watched it yet.

Timjune - 21/09/23
I appreciate your insights on "reimagine" and sharing Ursula Le Guin's book, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. It sounds fascinating, and I will definitely check it out.


Growing up in the southeast of China, in a semi-tropical climate, which might be more similar to the weather at your place, I am always surprised by the color palette of the northern sky. The afterglow transforms the colors into something so tender and gentle.


I embarked on several journeys by foot to some lighthouses in Reykjavík. The attached photo was taken a few days ago during the trip. Although the lighthouse is no longer in use, and there was no light, I used my flashlight to imitate the old lighthouse's glow, imagining it still functioning.

Let's keep gleaning and imagining.



Juliana - dec 27, 2023
Today I came back home - I’ll spend New Year’s Eve here in Ihabela, where me and my husband have a beach cottage. Our magical spot. We are chilling on the balcony and it is a nice starry and full moon night, which enchants me, so here is my entry for today:

Following the collaboration we asked Juliana and Timjune about the experience.

Describe the collaborative process with a total stranger on the other side of the world.
Juliana: It reminded me of the time we used to write letters to our friends telling them about our day, about the simple and ordinary things of our everyday life that brings us joy.
Timjune: It was absolutely a beautiful and inspiring journey shared with Juliana - a great soul living on the other side of the world. The sense of connection in creativity is a valuable and enjoyable experience.  And I found it fascinating that, during this dialogue, our thoughts affected each other's exploration.

How did the visual dialogue affect your work?
Juliana: I feel we created a visual connection through our images because they somehow had a synchronicity and this was amazing. The body of images reminds me of a visual diary that gathers little pieces of life in two very distant cities, showing sensitive moments of what one has lived during a few weeks under totally different temperatures, environments, ambiances, atmospheres, but yet what us human beings feel and see are quite similar despite these differences between Iceland and Brazil– this was the beauty and the most important outcome to me;
Timjune: It's magical to see our perspectives collide with visions, senses, and thoughts. And I found it fascinating that, during this visual dialogue, our thoughts affected each other's exploration. Like Juliana said, I also feel like it's a beautiful catch-up routine with an old friend.

How will it affect the way you work, or think about making work in the future?
Juliana: I’ll take this experience as an example that we just need to keep looking at the world around us with generosity when we face bad days or blocks to our creativity or inspiration.The “surprising factor” was amazing – the fact of not knowing what Timjune would photograph and send to me was very inspiring. Sometimes I was not in a place or in a situation that would be super inspiring to photograph or to be sent to him. But receiving the colleague’s e-mail/image was definitely a great trigger to seek a subsequent story to tell, food for thought and fuel to creativity.
Timjune I mostly work independently and express my own world through individual practice; but it's great to be connected. I think it would be a continuous inspiration for me. I really enjoyed the concept "to see from the other's eyes," and I would love to have more collaborative practice in the future.

juliana jacyntho @julianajacyntho
timjune tianjun li  @timjunelee

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