We are all from the same root.

"I'm Abang, Axian is my older brother, one year older than me. When we were young, we were often mistaken for each other, and people said we looked like twins. Even when I look through old photos, I can't tell who is who.

Because our parents were busy, two-year-old Axian was sent to our grandmother's house in Chiayi. When I was six, my parents divorced, and I was also sent to Chiayi. Our personalities and destinies, perhaps, began to diverge from then on.

Axian had an amazing talent for drawing. There was a stack of drawing awards at home. As a child, I was always very jealous and saw him as a formidable rival. However, he deeply influenced me throughout my growth. When he was fourteen, he made me watch 'Ashes of Time.' At first, I thought it was a terrible movie, but he watched it repeatedly. I asked him what was so good about it, and he just said, 'It has a certain cinematic feel.' It wasn't until I was nineteen that I began to understand Wong Kar-wai's films.

At eighteen, I decided to pursue image creation. I asked Axian about his future plans, and he casually said, 'I'll think about it when I get into a car accident.' After he was discharged from the military, he moved out and cut off contact with our family for three years, making a living as a laborer. I always thought he was a genius, and I felt he had a clear vision for his life. But when I asked him about his goals, his reaction and answers seemed to show that he really had no clue, and I always felt a sense of accomplishment, as if I had defeated him.

Until one day, he really did get into a car accident. While he was hospitalized, he asked me to get some medicine from his place. That's when I discovered his room was piled high with medicine bags: for depression, insomnia, epilepsy, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, and so on. I was shocked to realize that his world was completely different from what I had imagined.

After that, he quit his laborer job, moved back to our mother's house, and began psychiatric treatment. Once, he told me that he was squatting in the restroom when suddenly everything went black, he felt death approaching, and then he regained consciousness. He said, 'I just want to live well now, even though living is so painful.' That sentence relieved me of my jealousy and competitiveness towards him.

I suggested documenting his life, and he agreed. I wanted to record his lonely struggle and the pain of his survival, contrasting it with my utilitarian and worldly side. Perhaps he is my other side, and I am his other side.

Recently, Axian has put on some weight, and there's a smear of white residue at the corner of his mouth that hasn't gone away for a long time. Photographing Axian like this makes me feel cruel. Is he my work, or is this a way for me to understand him?

Did illness lead to the decay of life, or did the decay of life lead to illness? What are the forces and reasons behind pushing us brothers into completely different adult worlds? What is the emotion between brothers? I want to understand these complex questions by photographing Axian."

"Born of the Same Root" is presented as a double-sided book. On the left is photographer Tsai Ting-Pang (Abang), and on the right is his brother (Axian). Arranged chronologically, from childhood family photos to their differing adult lives, the dividing line constantly separates the brothers in the photos as you flip through the pages, foreshadowing how two people from the same origin develop vastly different lives: Abang attempts to pursue worldly interests through artistic creation; Axian becomes a laborer, and suffering from depression, deeply explores his inner spiritual world—however, lives that seem to move towards two extremes are not thereby estranged. The connected bloodline always influences each other's pursuits.

About the Photographer
Tsai Ting-Pang, born in Taoyuan in 1999, is of Taiwanese and Vietnamese descent. With a primary school education, he began his homeschooling journey at the age of twelve, using images and books as his creative medium. His works include "Mother and Father" and "Auntie Jin-Yun, So Beautiful."