Shanghai Districts is a ambitious documentary project I conducted in Shanghai between 2012 and 2015. I wanted to explore the urban sprawl in peripheric districts, less covered than the landmarks of the modern city. These used to be major and iconic industrial places (Minhang and Baoshan) or agricultural areas (Pudong, particularly after 1949 and during the cultural revolution) before China started its modern transformation, at the end of the 20th century.
I was inspired by the New Topographic photographers, e.g. Henry Wessel, and by documentary landscape photographers like Thierry Girard and Walker Evans, working on the vernacular side of the places.
I started with Minhang, The project was as huge as the geographic area, fascinating, and overwhelming in a way, as I hardly managed to reach an overall visual coherence in the landscape. I shot black and white films to renforce the industrial tonality, and to create a "visual distance" that I thought would suit the project. I got lost, and felt that I had "exhausted my eyes" after having processed 120 rolls or so there, I shifted to Pudong district. In Pudong, I decided to walk and follow Pudong Avenue as a thread throughout the district, from east to west and north to south, exploring a relatively large variety of landscapes, and covering the contrasts of the city change, between modern and old places leaving place to no-man's-lands. It gave a sense of continuity, each session was shot in a different section of the avenue. Using color helped me to recover a visual energy.
Lastly, I came back to a more industrial environment in Baoshan, which is even today a major place for the Steel and the Chemical Industries in China. I stopped the project as I could not get a satisfactory enough visual access to the sites from the street, and as I felt a repetition with what I did in Minhang.
I have accumulaled a lot of material, everything was shot in analog mode with Contax G and Leica cameras, and some aspects of my work may not be fully reflected in the portfolio on display.
I was inspired by the New Topographic photographers, e.g. Henry Wessel, and by documentary landscape photographers like Thierry Girard and Walker Evans, working on the vernacular side of the places.
I started with Minhang, The project was as huge as the geographic area, fascinating, and overwhelming in a way, as I hardly managed to reach an overall visual coherence in the landscape. I shot black and white films to renforce the industrial tonality, and to create a "visual distance" that I thought would suit the project. I got lost, and felt that I had "exhausted my eyes" after having processed 120 rolls or so there, I shifted to Pudong district. In Pudong, I decided to walk and follow Pudong Avenue as a thread throughout the district, from east to west and north to south, exploring a relatively large variety of landscapes, and covering the contrasts of the city change, between modern and old places leaving place to no-man's-lands. It gave a sense of continuity, each session was shot in a different section of the avenue. Using color helped me to recover a visual energy.
Lastly, I came back to a more industrial environment in Baoshan, which is even today a major place for the Steel and the Chemical Industries in China. I stopped the project as I could not get a satisfactory enough visual access to the sites from the street, and as I felt a repetition with what I did in Minhang.
I have accumulaled a lot of material, everything was shot in analog mode with Contax G and Leica cameras, and some aspects of my work may not be fully reflected in the portfolio on display.
