Shanghai Tower

In 2014 I was invited by the architects of the Shanghai Tower to photograph its construction. Over the course of that year I followed the structure as it rose up in the Pudong skyline and documented the progress on site. I was particularly fascinated with the men and women working on the tower. The vast majority of these workers came from rural China and were living away from home, often for several years.  I was struck by their camaraderie and the boldness with which they approached their work, usually at knee-trembling heights. They came in waves, and as the project moved along cohorts of scaffolders, electricians, glass fitters would come and go. It wasn’t unusual to see a whole team from one village and working with their friends and relatives. In years to come when it becomes difficult to imagine the Pudong landscape without the Shanghai Tower, when it feels like the Tower has always just occupied the space, I hope the portraits I’ve captured serve as a reminder to its beginnings and the thousands of hands that built it.