Meet flowcloud, Editor-in-Chief

flowcloud is the pen name of Liu Yun (流云), the editor-in-chief of Newtread and a celebrated traveller who has wandered through cities across the globe.

The Traveller Behind the Name

There is a particular kind of loneliness that belongs only to the road — the soft ache of arriving, the quiet let-down of leaving. flowcloud knows this feeling better than most. Over the years he has walked the streets of countless cities, through rain-soaked alleys and neon-lit avenues, and yet no matter how far he goes, something in him never quite arrives.

People often ask why he photographs so many empty streets, why his best frames are the ones without faces. He smiles, but he rarely answers. Perhaps it is easier to capture a place than to belong to one.

A Life Spent Looking

He is a well-known traveller and storyteller, but also something of a gentle loner. In crowded markets he is the quiet one behind the camera; on long train rides he is the passenger who watches the window. Each city he visits becomes a page on Newtread — but between the lines, there is always a story of one person looking for a home in other people’s cities.

The Three Things That Keep Him Company

When the road grows heavy, flowcloud turns to three things:

• Photography — he photographs light and fleeting moments, knowing most of them will be gone before the shutter closes again. His gallery is full of things that have already disappeared.
• Gaming — in virtual worlds he finds a kind of company that real ones seldom offer. At night, the glow of the screen is his quietest companion.
• Guesthouses — he loves the small, warm guesthouses and homestays, where a lamp is left on for a stranger. Each one feels like a home for a single night — enough to miss, not enough to keep.

A Note From the Editor

“Every city has a pulse, and every pulse has a quiet side. I photograph the quiet side — the lamplight in a stranger’s window, the last passenger on the platform, the road that still smells of rain. I write so that someone, somewhere, does not have to feel so alone in their wandering.”

flowcloud’s journeys continue here on Newtread, every week — one more city, one more empty street, one more photograph of a home he can never stay in.