A Poetic Exploration Of Modern China

The places depicted in the photographs are Hunan, a southern province of China where Ke Peng was born, and Shenzhen, where she grew up. Shenzhen’s population grows at an extremely rapid pace – over thirty years, it has grown from 30,000 to 15,000,000 people. Intrigued by the perpetual movement in a city she knew from her earlier years, the photographer wanted to explore the relation between the limitations of space and the sudden expansion of its population. Peng’s intention was also to show how unique yet common the human experience is.

Peng included a short poem to his artist statement:

“To the place where light never changes,
and people stroll through the dust,
where a thousand miles of river hidden in the fog.
To the first place I have been, but don’t know much about.”