Chloé Zhao

I know I'm not living my life fully.

And it's because I'm so terrified.

I don't feel safe in this world.

Also, my instinctual human self knows that when you go into nature, if you have a relationship with nature, then you develop a very embodied spirituality that is not relied on anyone else telling you, right?

It's an embodied safety that you feel within oneness.

And that you can only find in nature when you become one with your surroundings.

All of our great prophets goes into nature to come back with the message for a reason.

And so I just knew that's part of working on my own shit.

To get myself into nature.

And the second part to answer that question is that in my 30s, I was much more like a pioneer.

like going west, going into, like, finding treasures.

I wanted to go as wide as possible, chasing horizon after horizon so I can come back with the treasures.

The camera is insatiable.

It wants to capture everything.

And I want to move.

I'm always on the move.

And then in my 40s, after a midlife crisis, I realized that I can't keep running from myself.

And in the forest...

It's the opposite of the plains.

And the forest is deeply feminine.