ALEX
HUANFA
CHENG

中国幻境

我出生在湖北大冶的乡镇，2012年去法国留学并工作至今。每次回到家乡都深切感受到中国的变化之快。这个时代中国人的整体收入提高，大部分底层人也摆脱了贫困，生活也变得更加丰富。中国在实用主义的哲学观下，便有了许多超现实的景观，恍如幻境。即便是司空见惯的一些事物，都透着一种不真实感。我便想记录这个时代的风景和肖像，为中国做一份视觉档案。

于是从2016年起，我开始去中国各地行走。我尝试拍摄不同教育背景和经济条件的男女老少，捕捉他们的姿态，表情和衣着风格等。对于每个被拍摄的人，我尽量去捕捉他们原汁原味的形象。被拍摄者大多是处于娱乐休闲活动中的人们，一个时代的流行风尚反映了这个时代的主流文化。“中国梦”下的人们穿着花花绿绿的衣服，形象鲜活有趣，让这片土地有种迷人的气质。但同一个国家，并不一定所有人拥有同一个梦想，拍摄过程中也捕捉到很多社会的矛盾和不合理的事物。中国这片土地充满了复杂性。

余华的一段话让我深受启发：人们对尊严的理解不尽相同，有些人认为富贵和繁荣代表了尊严，高楼大厦鳞次栉比，高速公路纵横交错，商店里奢侈品琳琅满目等等的景象代表了尊严。另一些人却不那么认为，这些人认为尊严来自于人们的内心，表达于人们的表情，尊严和富贵繁荣没有必然的关系。

这个项目还在进行中。

Chinese Wonderland

I was born in a rural area of Hubei, China, and now I'm living in Paris. Every time I return to China, I have a deep impression that China is changing fast.
In these decades, the income of the Chinese people has increased, even most people in rural areas have also got rid of poverty, and they are showing different life on the internet. Under the philosophy of pragmatism, China has many surreal landscapes, like illusions. Even many things in daily life look unreal. I try to capture the views and portraits of this era and make a visual archive of China.

I traveled in different regions in China and tried to capture portraits, expressions, postures, and the style of regular people of different ages, various cultural and educational backgrounds, and different economic conditions. I do not apply a predefined concept to the persons I meet, but I try to show their real character and particularity. Most photographed people were in leisure activities. Fashion reflects the mainstream culture of this era. People in the "Chinese Dream" dress in colorful clothes and they look lively and funny, which makes China fascinating. But one world, not one dream, and some contradictions of the society and irrational things are captured during the project. China is full of complexity.

The Chinese writer -- Yuhua's words, inspired me: Some believe that dignity is found in wealth and prosperity — in the forms of forests of high rises, cobwebs of highways and shops dazzling with luxuries. Others disagree. They believe dignity comes from inside, that it shows in people's expressions, and has no connection to material wealth.

The project is still ongoing.