Exhibit Space

"Heaven and Earth" is a long-form photographic project documenting the social and ecological transformations of the Hexi Corridor in northwest China. Between April and December 2023,Weifeng Yang traveled over 20,000 kilometers, visiting almost every township in the region. Along this narrow strip of land—between mountain ranges and deserts—I photographed landscapes, labor, rituals, and ruins that reveal the subtle, ongoing shifts in rural life.

The title draws from classical Chinese cosmology and reflects a quiet reverence for land, time, and endurance. Rather than dramatizing change, the photographer aims to observe it: women working in seed bases, shepherds resting in the sun, firecrackers lit for rituals, green mesh covering cleared land. These understated scenes form a complex portrait of a historically rich and vulnerable territory.

Through restrained, persistent observation, Heaven and Earth becomes an act of witnessing—documenting what endures beneath what changes. The project resists spectacle in favor of nuance, drawing attention to the slow violence of modernization, recorded not with urgency but pressure. Photography here is not only a gesture of care, migration, and ecological questioning, but also a form of preservation.

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