Three decades of documenting China

Shenzhen and the Special Economic Zones had helped launch much of China’s opening up but by the mid 1990s change was happening for example around Shanghai. Historically a port and international trading centre it lay close to the mouth of the Yangtze River. Today it is a world leading city enhanced by its dramatic, high-rise skyline. Shanghai’s stimulus came in1993 with the Pudong New Area being established directly across the Huangpu River from the classic early 20th century Bund. In 1996 fortuitously I visited the city, photographing some of the early stages in Pudong’s development. Returning most recently in 2017 the contrasts were indeed staggering.

It always intrigued me that China with several of the world’s largest cities could actually encompass vast areas of uninhabited land, mostly within its northwestern provinces and regions. In 1997 I set off on a journey, mostly by rail following effectively the former Silk Road to the far west, to Xinjiang. There, a story of stunning landscapes, remote deserts and mountains where survival depended on availability of water. All so different to areas such as Guangdong, my early China home.