Jasper Yi CaoPhotography
 Horizon, I know you are a ship that will never anchor
Loveletters, Fireworks and Time Travle 
A Transoceanic Imagination: Midsummer, 1994
Memory of salt
Pink, Pink
Connected and Estranged Relatives
Physical, intimate
Lyrical Miniature
Between the Wall
Distortion
仙人掌诗人在乱叫 Howling Cactus: Independent Photography & Publishing
01: And then the traces disappeared
02: No words wander here
2/5: Personal Preference
03: Still can't turn to the left
04: Touch us here, in the wrong place
Publication
Lyrical Miniature
Loveletters, Fireworks and Time Travle ( with PNPRESS )
第二支矛 The second spear ( with HAKUCHI )
Untitled, Unsent letter
Curation
Fiction, Vision, MirrorBook  Design
一百年太久 So Long ( for Yao Meng)
缀断耳语 Episodic Murmuring ( with Stasis Space, for Yiwei )
神游 Spirt Away ( with Automatic studio )
使者的云 Obscurities ( for Yao Meng & Vera Xia )
Nonsense ( for Choi Hui )
Game of Photos ( for Cai Dongdong )
Fissure of a Sweet dreame ( for Jialin Yan )
Random Access to Memory ( for Tengteng Da )
最后的人 The last of us ( for RyeWave )
目之所至 As far as we can see 2022 ( for athaartspace )
目之所至 As far as we can see 2023 ( for athaartspace )
青灯 
一种平静 ( for Wang Xin )
Life-Place ( for Yesheng )
Picnic ( for Uqbar )
俎 Zood ( for Tengteng Da )
Decision ( for Bian Yachun )
Journey of Perplexity ( for Lei Bai )
Water, Elsewhere ( for Jianuan Xu )
The Evil Dragon Was Defeated in Winter ( for Shu Zhang )
CV
Jasper Yi Cao (b. 1998, Changsha, China) is a photographic artist and book designer based in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

Her work explores the intersection of archives, memory, and collective experience in contemporary Chinese society.

Blending photography, handmade books, and darkroom techniques, she constructs non-linear visual narratives. She is also the founder of a design studio and co-founder of the “Howling Cactus” photography group, through which she has published magazines, exhibited internationally, and supported self-publishing. Her practice spans image-making, editorial design, and independent publishing, with a focus on history, memory, and the poetics of time.

jasper.caoyi@gmail.com
Instagram: cao1caoyi
PhotographyA Transoceanic Imagination: Midsummer, 1994

China, Nederland
2024- photograph,
installation,
photobook,
Film,  Fiction
This project is currently in its early stage, focusing on the organization and digitalization of archives as well as the exploration of various media forms. The overall plan will encompass static images, video(film), text (fiction), media installations, and photographic books/art books, with an expected creation period of two to three years.

The starting point of the project is a box of letters from 1994, belonging to a transnational couple. The husband ran a pharmacy business in Côte d'Ivoire, while the wife stayed in Shanghai caring for their elderly family members and children. Both are originally from Fujian Province, China. The letters document in detail their respective lives and experiences in different countries, as well as the emotional connection maintained through cross-ocean correspondence. This communication, spanning Côte d'Ivoire and Shanghai, not only reveals personal stories of migration, longing, and separation but also sparked my interest in the broader historical context of “transoceanic life.”

The context of this project is closely linked to the history of large-scale Chinese transoceanic migration in modern times. In the mid-19th century, to escape war or seek livelihoods, many Chinese left their homeland and went to Southeast Asia — a history known as “going down to Nanyang.” With China’s reform and opening up, more people began migrating to South America, Africa, and Europe, creating new waves of migration. During this period, booming international trade brought profound social changes, reshaping economic, cultural, and social life.

Now living in the Netherlands, I am surrounded by many transoceanic immigrant communities from East Asia. The sense of belonging and wandering often lies just a thought apart. That unresolved feeling of fate seems like an invisible rope connecting individuals to land, time, and space.

From a postmodern perspective, archives are no longer impartial historical records but power structures that shape reality. I hope to use this collection of transnational correspondence as an entry point to construct narratives between fiction and reality. Through the interplay of different media, I aim to observe the intervention of history and the formation of new historical perspectives, while reflecting on how contemporary Chinese people reconstruct the meanings of identity, family, and memory amid global mobility.

© Jasper Yi Cao