Shanghai Transforming

In the summer of 2005, I traveled with architect Iker Gil to Shanghai to take photographs for the book Shanghai Transforming. From the beginning I thought that his proposal to capture the transformation of the city was interesting. […] Shanghai’s growth is so spectacular that the city map is renewed every six months. Neighborhoods disappear under the rubble, and with them, their inhabitants’ histories.

Discovering Shanghai dramatically changed my idea of architecture and its relationship to us as human beings. Suddenly, I was face to face with the paradox of transforming a city not to live in, but rather into an aesthetic object and symbol of economic power. Shanghai is a city created for admiration, and it seduces you from the moment you first set eyes on it. Appearing as a theme park, its grandiose and shiny architecture demands being observed and photographed.

However, I feel that with each change, this city loses more of its human dimension, and becomes increasingly detached from the idea of creating public space where people can relate to one another and live together. Shanghai, liberated from aesthetic prejudices and the fascinating look inspired by its rapid urban development, shows its grief as a city full of empty spaces and walls. I reflect these solitary and contradictory places in my pictures with the hope of transmitting some of the feelings this city brought me.