Metamorpolis
© Tim FrancoMetamorpolis is a long term project about the city of Chongqing ( 5 years ). This city, one of the biggest in central China, went through one of the fastest development process in the country. The main reason is, located upstream of the three gorges dam, the government has welcomed all displaced population from submerged region into its main urban areas . The city is fascinating because of its accelerated development that produced high rises buildings on the side of rivers and mountains, taking over the farmlands and old architecture, but also because of its political and social history. Once at the hand of the biggest organized crime group in China, the city has been re manipulated into a neo communist style red propaganda machine, led by the highly controversial son of a famous revolutionary named Bo Xilai.
I personally see Chongqing as a macro representation of the whole China. With its tumultuous political history and its growing social pressure for managing a farmer population inside newly developed urban areas, all of it pushed by a constant need of investments and fast modernisation, I wanted to portray this view of a growing china, far away from the common views of eastern cities such as shanghai or beijing. From a photographic point of view, I have decided to shoot the people in their environment. But I have decided to take a step back, using medium format film camera, I want to transmit the feeling of scales and showing the people in their urban environment. Metamorpolis is a portrait of chinese a megapolis full of contradiction, trying to keep up with its unpredictable modernization.
click to view the complete set of images in the archive
