Alex Huanfa Cheng: water will find a way around us

For Lampoon Issue 20, Fluid, Alex Huanfa Cheng imagines the body as a changing landscape, where fashion follows the logic of water rather than form

Created for Lampoon Issue 20, Fluid, Alex Huanfa Cheng develops a photographic series in which the body is continuously reshaped through clothing, sculptural volumes and movement. Soft, inflated forms surround the figures, altering their proportions and dissolving the distinction between anatomy and garment. Rather than defining the body, fashion becomes a material that expands it, wraps around it and transforms its silhouette.

The photographs do not depict water directly. Instead, they borrow its behaviour: adapting, flowing and occupying space without fixed boundaries. Organic shapes, layered textiles and padded structures suggest a body that is never static, but constantly negotiating its relationship with the environment.

As Cheng explains: “We are made up of 90% water and water will find a way around us.”

The series treats fluidity as a physical condition rather than a metaphor. Identity is presented as something that shifts through contact, material and space, while the body becomes a porous surface where fashion, sculpture and photography converge.

Photography Alex Huanfa Cheng, styling Ally Macrae

About Alex Huanfa Cheng

Alex Huanfa Cheng is a Chinese photographer based in Paris. His work moves between fashion photography, portraiture and long-term personal research, examining the relationship between the body, memory and everyday life. Through editorial and independent projects, he explores identity as an evolving condition shaped by time, materiality and human relationships.