First published 2012
Howard French documents the transformation of Shanghai through photographs taken across five years in the city's oldest districts. His camera follows residents of worker quarters and central neighborhoods as developers demolish century-old buildings to make way for modern construction. Qiu Xiaolong, creator of Inspector Chen detective novels set in these same streets, provides poems and essays that illuminate the daily rhythms French captures. The photographs reveal families in cramped apartments, vendors on narrow streets, and children playing in courtyards that existed throughout the twentieth century. French pursued this documentation with systematic dedication, creating a visual record of communities facing displacement by urban reconstruction projects. Qiu's literary perspective adds depth to French's images, drawing from his intimate knowledge of these neighborhoods where his fictional detective once walked. Together they preserve the texture of a disappearing way of life before Shanghai's ambitious development erases it completely.
Genres: art, social-issues, 21st-century, photography, urban
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: documentary, preservation
Setting: China, Shanghai
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
126 pages · Hardcover · Homa & Sekey Books