Flavorwire

Don Hong-Oai, whose work we spotted over at How to Be a Retronaut, takes beautiful photographs in the style of traditional Chinese paintings from the late Song and Yuan dynasties. Though born in China, Don left at the age of 7 to live in a Chinese community in Vietnam, and was eventually apprenticed at a photography studio. After a decade of apprenticeship, he managed to save the equivalent of $48 to buy his first camera. Eventually, he studied under the tutelage of Long Chin-San in Taiwan, who taught him the principles of traditional painting and photography, the most important of which being “that of spiritual resonance, the ability of the artist to feel the true nature of what is being painted…the humanness of humans, the treeness of trees, the waterness of water.” Click through to see some of Don’s amazing work, and let us know if you think he achieves the principle of spiritual resonance in the comments.