Capturing a transformation
His methodology is anthropological: living alongside subjects for months, eating sharing meals, gaining trust before lifting his camera. This approach defines his 30-year Xinyaozi study, which turns into a book soon to be published by the Zhejiang Photographic Press.
From 1996 to 2025, he traveled between Beijing and Xinyaozi more than 50 times, spending over 300 days and nights in the village and shooting more than 400 rolls of film and tens of thousands of digital photos with nearly 500,000 words written in diaries and recorded stories from the villagers.
His black-and-white early shots capture gaunt elders who've since passed, wide-eyed children now middle-aged farmers-turned-entrepreneurs, and stooped mothers whose granddaughters today attend college.
