Donghai Island People(44)

Donghai Island, the fifth largest island in China, has been transformed into a major island of heavy industry in the past decade. Many original residents have been forced to leave their hometown due to requisition of land and other reasons, posing new challenges to the traditional culture and lifestyle of Donghai Island. The air and environment here have also deteriorated. In 2013, I returned to live on the island and used a film camera to document the friendly faces of the people there. I want to remember them through photos and preserve a memory of my hometown. The works I captured in my hometown not only document the love and courage that the people of my hometown display as they face significant changes and new challenges in their environment and air, but also reveal their unyielding dignity and complex inner conflicts. These ordinary faces, simple, kind, resilient, unyielding, optimistic, and brave, are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. I also hope to explore the multifaceted and complex nature of human beings through portrait photography.