All photographs posted here are the property of Feng Liu and are protected by Copyright Law. The images may not be reproduced, copied, archived or reworked in any way without the written permission of Feng Liu. No images are part of the public domain.
For me, losing my great mentor and dear friend, Jean-Jacques Naudet, is the deepest sorrow I have ever known. I only just received this devastating news—having discovered it when I saw my portfolio featured in "The Eye of Photography", yet noticed that Jean-Jacques Naudet’s contact email was missing. At this moment, I am left speechless. The entire world has lost a true titan of the photographic realm. It was he who, just ten years ago, encouraged me to launch my own personal website; and as recently as last October, I had written to him.
I simply wish to express my sincere gratitude to you for the assistance you have provided over the past decade—guidance that has charted a clear course for my street photography. It was you who set me on the right path and suggested that I establish my own website; today, I deeply realize just how pivotal that step has been for my career in street photography. You are the wind beneath my wings; it is precisely because of your support that I have been able to take flight.
I have found that the photographic styles of Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau resonate perfectly with my own nature. I intend to follow in their footsteps, engaging in pure street photography to capture those fleeting moments—without staging, retouching, or the use of AI.
Feng Liu: Twenty Publications in The Eye of Photography
A Chicago Street Photographer with an International Visio
A Journey Connecting Shanghai, Chicago, and the World Through Photography
The publication of Feng Liu's latest photographic portfolio in The Eye of Photography (L’Œil de la Photographie) on November 14, 2026, marks a remarkable milestone: his twentieth portfolio appearance in the internationally recognized photography publication based in Paris, France.
Twenty publications represent more than an impressive number. They reflect a sustained artistic journey, a continuing photographic dialogue with an international audience, and a growing body of visual work documenting the people, streets, cultures, and changing identity of Chicago.
For Feng Liu, street photography is not simply the act of recording fleeting moments. It is a way of understanding humanity, preserving collective memories, and discovering the extraordinary beauty hidden in ordinary urban life.
1. Shanghai Gave Him Roots, Chicago Gave Him Wings
The title of his twentieth portfolio, "Shanghai Gave Me My Roots, Chicago Gave Me Wings," offers a deeply personal perspective on his artistic development.
Shanghai is his first hometown. It gave him his early cultural experiences, artistic sensitivity, appreciation of beauty, and understanding of everyday life.
Chicago became his second hometown. It offered freedom, opportunities, cultural encounters, and an expansive environment in which his photographic vision could mature.
Returning to Shanghai after many years, Feng photographed the city through the eyes of someone who had left, experienced another culture, and returned with a different understanding of home.
This experience reveals an important characteristic of his photography: the ability to see familiar places from an unfamiliar perspective.
His camera becomes a bridge between two cities, two cultures, and two chapters of a personal and artistic journey.
2. Chicago: A Living Laboratory of Multicultural America
For more than two decades, Feng Liu has photographed Chicago's streets and neighborhoods, observing the extraordinary diversity of American urban life.
Chicago is one of America's great multicultural cities. Its streets bring together people from different ethnic, cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds.
Through everyday encounters, public celebrations, neighborhood activities, changing architecture, and spontaneous human interactions, street photography can reveal how these communities coexist and evolve.
Feng's photographs make this diversity visible through individual human experiences.
Rather than presenting multiculturalism as an abstract concept, his work finds it in ordinary moments: a conversation between strangers, a family walking through a neighborhood, an unexpected encounter, or the quiet expression of someone passing through the city.
Over the years, these photographs have also acquired historical significance. They preserve visual evidence of a changing Chicago and offer future generations a way to explore the city's cultural identity.
3. Twenty Publications: An International Photographic Dialogue
Being published twenty times in The Eye of Photography is a meaningful achievement.
The publication provides an international platform for photographers, visual artists, and photographic projects. Its Paris base places Feng's Chicago-centered work within a broader international photographic conversation.
Repeated publication gives international readers opportunities to encounter different aspects of his artistic vision.
It also creates a continuing record of his development as a photographer.
The significance is not simply that one portfolio has attracted attention. It is that his work has returned to the same international platform repeatedly, establishing a sustained presence.
This milestone deserves recognition as an important chapter in the international presentation of Chicago street photography.
4. Beyond Documentary Photography: Preserving Human Experience
The strongest street photography does more than document what a city looks like.
It reveals what a city feels like.
A photograph can preserve a moment that disappears seconds later. A stranger's expression, a child's curiosity, a crowded sidewalk, an unexpected gesture, or a fleeting encounter can become a permanent visual record.
Feng Liu's long-term engagement with Chicago gives this practice another dimension: continuity.
Individual photographs become part of a larger visual narrative about people, time, cultural change, and urban identity.
Viewed together, his work can be understood as an ongoing photographic portrait of a city and its inhabitants.
5. Connecting Chicago to the International Photography Community
Chicago has a rich photographic history and an important place in American visual culture.
Feng Liu's repeated appearances in a Paris-based publication help bring another perspective on the city to international readers.
His work connects local experiences with universal themes:
Migration and belonging.
Cultural diversity and coexistence.
Memory and identity.
Urban transformation.
The relationship between individuals and society.
The beauty of everyday human life.
These themes cross national boundaries. Readers do not need to know Chicago intimately to understand the emotions and experiences expressed in his photographs.
This ability to connect local subjects with universal human experiences is one of the most meaningful possibilities of street photography.
6. Twenty Publications and the Journey Ahead
Feng Liu's twentieth publication is both a celebration and an opportunity to reflect on what comes next.
His photographic journey connects Shanghai, Chicago, and the wider world. It combines personal memory with public observation, cultural identity with universal human experience, and local street scenes with international artistic dialogue.
Twenty appearances in The Eye of Photography provide a meaningful milestone from which to examine his growing body of work.
Ultimately, the importance of Feng Liu's photography will not be measured by publication numbers alone. It will also be measured by the images he has created, the human experiences he has preserved, and the perspectives he has offered to audiences across cultures.
Shanghai gave him his roots. Chicago gave him wings. Photography gave him a language understood around the world.
And after twenty publications in The Eye of Photography, his photographic journey continues.