Yangtze River is a documentary photography project that traces the sprawling waterway not merely as a natural landscape, but as a living archive of ecological transformation and social upheaval. Traveling along the river, I capture the interplay between massive infrastructure projects, environmental change and the everyday lives of those who dwell on its banks. My images bear witness to the uneven, often jarring layers of “compressed modernity” where ancient fishing villages sit beside colossal bridges, and industrial haze drifts over rice paddies. Beyond documenting visible scenery, the project probes the river’s deeper temporal dimensions, revealing how state-driven development reshapes both the physical environment and the subjective experiences of local communities.

 

This project is sponsored by OWS Foundation. 

 

The work has been exhibited at Tank Shanghai, as well as in Beijing, Zhejiang, and other venues.

My monograph Lan Ke Ren brings together documentary photography depicting Chinese society between 2010 and 2020.

 

Wang Zhi went into the mountain to cut wood. He saw two children playing Go. He sat and watched. Upon his leave, the axe was already rotten. When he returned to his village, his family had disappeared and no one remembered his name.

 

from Shu Yi Ji (Records of Strang Things), approx. 5th century