The Zone of Residue
This series documents a disappearing neighborhood in Qingdao, China. Most of the buildings have already collapsed into ruins, yet many people still live among them. These abandoned structures—locked off with chains and gates—have strangely become a kind of ‘scenery.’ Tourists come to look at the ruins from outside, drawn to their decay, but unable to see the lives that continue quietly within and around them.In this in-between space, I witness a form of survival that exists in the cracks. Reality and memory overlap here: it feels as if the past has never fully left, yet the future never truly arrives. By using digital photography to emulate the texture of 1980s Chinese family snapshots, I try to give the images a softened, uncertain sense of time. Through this approach, I aim to record moments of daily life that are fading yet persistently alive.
With this series, I hope to remind us that history is not made only of what gets restored, displayed, or officially remembered. It also lives within the people who continue their lives in these ruins—their routines, their reasons for staying, and the memories that have not yet been erased.