A few years ago, to keep my now 89 years old Laolao stay connected with the family, my mother gave her an old iPhone 4 I used back in high school, and with my youngest cousin’s help, she learned how to pick up and occasionally dial out phone calls despite being illiterate. During one visit, I opened and scrolled through her phone album out of curiosity and discovered these photos. There are  moments of accidental tenderness,  exquisitely mundane, often blurry and poorly framed snaps, there’s no way of telling, just by looking at them, if she had taken these photos intentionally or without knowing. Still, they were a glimpse into her daily life, within the walls of her bedroom in my uncle’s flat, and between the visists and phone called, she cooks, eats, watches TV, often alone.  

I keep coming back to these pictures. Somehow, they feel closer than any posed portrait—like puzzle pieces, I'm putting together a part of her life I never get to see. 

The most unintentional photos are always the most beautiful ones.