Punks and monks

another me in the world

This is a scene accidentally captured by Australian photographer Roger Stonehouse in a market in Bagan, Myanmar: on a hot and irritable summer day, a rock boy with a cigarette ring was walking along the road with a slightly shy young monk.

We don't know the relationship between them: friends, brothers, or real lovers? But this is not important, what is important is the insoluble contradiction and perfect unity that this scene shows. One represents rebellion and freedom, and the other represents peace and purity, which is not worldly. "Collision" is the intuitive feeling that this picture gives me. Two completely different cultures and two unrelated beliefs collide, as if there is a kind of peace in the middle, so that they can hold each other's hands calmly.

There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people. From the moment I saw them, I felt that they were another self in each other's world. All wandering lives dream of peace, childhood and azaleas, just as all peaceful lives dream of vodka, bands and drunkenness. Sometimes we can't accept our inner thoughts, or feel that it doesn't conform to our position and identity. Quiet people dare not shout, and unrestrained people dare not enjoy flowers quietly. Constantly denying your inner voice is full of contradictions. But we can choose to accept, accept our appearance, accept the beast in our heart that may be called "rebellion and unyielding", just like the punk teenager and monk who hold hands with each other, and reach a reconciliation with their hearts.

In 20 13, this work became the cover of the album Save Rock by the rock band Fall Out Boy. Fall Out Boy thinks that this photo is like the combination of new beliefs and old traditions. Just like the rock spirit of their band, it can cross the barriers of culture, religion and belief, and music brings people together.