About two weeks ago, my Vertical Communism series was featured in a very respected New York Times Lens Blog. I had a great conversation with Matthew McCann about China and Chongqing and a pleasant article about the situation with urbanisation in China. You can see the portfolio and article here:
http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/vertical-communism/
and some print screen of the post below:
One of my vertical communism photos from a Carabean themed water pool park in Chongqing has been published in today’s edition of Le Monde illustrating an article on strong consumption in China.
after spending a lot of time in the city, the first word that come to my mouth to describe it are brutal, out of scale, soulless… But sometimes, as I walked around the city towards sunset, on the side of the river or in the mountains above the city, I cannot stop my self and notice that there still is something pelicular and incredibly beautiful about the city… here are some of those photos.
As a major developing city in China, Chongqing construction sites are all over the city. From giant housing complex to new public projects, every part of the city is changing and growing. The jiangbei area ( north of the river ) is considered as a new development district. Just some farmlands a few years ago, the north side of the Jialing river is now covered with giant holes and construction projects. The major one is a gigantic bridge connecting directly the Jiefangbei central district of the city to this new area.
A few kilometers down the Jialing river, in the active district of shapingba, giant housing complex are also being constructed on every piece of land still available to accomodate newcomers in the city. Some of chongqing new inhabitants still have a very hard time to adapt to the urban life and keep their traditional way of living.
and back to our favorite shepherd, just because we like hom a lot 
Chongqing is surrounded by two major rivers, the Yangtse and the Jialing. Year around, many chongqing citizen spend time fishing in it. All the techniques are possible, from the classic ones to the most original. Here a fisherman is uing is own nets and go directly in the deepest part of the river with his home made floating vest to get more fish ! The ciqikou district in chongqing is a popular area. With some of the oldest building in the city, it his a nice place were local people come with their family for a little stroll, playing with the kids or a simple cup of tea.
The Neue Burcher Beitung ( NZZ ) is the oldest newspaper in Europe. Their design has barelly changed since the 18 century. I was very proud that a photo of my Chongqing Collection Vertical Communism made it on the front page.
Chongqing le Monde Portfolio
Last week end, the geo-political supplement of Le Monde featured my current series ” Vertical Communism” about Chongqing. Together with a text from Francois Bougon, the portfolio has been both in print and web here in the following link:
Chongqing Is Often regarded as one the shinning new exemple of central chinese urban megapolis… but is it ? As most of the people migrating to the city come from a farming background, most of them have no level of education. They are suddenly being relocated in high rises and apartment complex on the border and in new development district of Chongqing. Once relocated, they are doing the only they know how to do well – farming.
While the center of chongqing seems like a forest of high rises and modern buildings taking over old part of the cities, you don’t have to drive very far before seeing every piece of land being used for agriculture purposes. From the garden of complexes, to the border of construction sites, every piece of ground is good to be work on. This comes as a major concern for the modernisation and development of the city, as half of the population is actually doing agriculture work.
Chongqing does not escape the summer heat. It is even considered as one of the hottest city in China. With temperature turning around the 40 degrees, it is hard to walk outside for more than an hour. On week ends, locals escape the heat as much as they can. The Caribbean themed park located on the Nanshan Mountains, a few minutes drive from the center of the city is certainly one of the most popular destination for the summer days. Giant wave pools together with a full range of different slides and other attractions, the park offers the perfect mix between refreshment and entertainment. On summer week ends, thousands come through the park gates to get a chance to spend the day in the water.
Ricky Nyhoff shot this beautiful videos while helping me on one of the first portrait shoot on my Chongqing Project :