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Ye Chuan

Cities, mountains and ordinary light

A tree in the lake against the setting sun, a bird flying past it

I’m Ye Chuan, an independent photographer in Chengdu. I walk the city on ordinary days and head west into the mountains and lakes on holidays, photographing people, and the places where they aren’t.

Each group below is a series, arranged roughly in the order I shot them. If you’d like to talk about a commission, a project or a print, just write to me.

About meWrite to me

  1. An old street strung with red lanterns, a few people walking along it

    Series 01 · After the stalls close

    Night Lanes

    2023–2025 · 6 frames · Chengdu

    Old streets and back lanes in Chengdu once the stalls have shut. Street lamps, shop signs and puddle reflections, the quietest part of the city after dark.

  2. A person with an umbrella walks past a gilded carved screen wall, reflected in the puddle underfoot

    Series 02 · Umbrellas and wet streets

    Rainy Season

    2022–2024 · 6 frames · Chengdu

    Chengdu’s rain is fine and it lasts. Umbrellas, ponchos, puddles and people drawn closer by the weather are what I’ve loved shooting most these past few years.

  3. An old man writing with water on the paving stones using a long brush, a few onlookers gathered around

    Series 03 · People I’ve sat beside

    Neighbours

    2019–2025 · 7 frames · Chengdu and western Sichuan

    Ordinary people in teahouses, old streets, crossings and parks, photographed in Chengdu and western Sichuan over several years. Most of them I barely spoke to.

  4. A whole old town of grey tiled roofs beneath distant mountains

    Series 04 · Tiles and lantern light

    Old Roofs

    2021–2025 · 6 frames · Dali, Lijiang and western Sichuan

    Old towns in northwest Yunnan and western Sichuan. Tiled roofs, narrow lanes and the lights that come on at dusk, each seen once from above and once up close.

  5. Two figures standing in shallow water on the lake at dawn

    Series 05 · Twenty mornings

    Erhai

    2024 · 6 frames · Dali

    Twenty days in Dali, down at the lake every morning. No postcard views, only the water, the wind and the people standing in it.

  6. A river cutting through a deep green gorge, a small town on the slope wrapped in mist

    Series 06 · Waiting for the fog

    Misty Ridges

    2021–2025 · 8 frames · Southwest mountains

    The southwest mountains are always in fog. The few minutes on a ridge, in a gorge or at a pass while it clears are my most patient shooting yet.

  7. A small Tibetan village on a scrubby hillside

    Series 07 · West of Chengdu

    Plateau

    2023 · 6 frames · Western Sichuan and northwest Yunnan

    Heading west from Chengdu, the altitude keeps climbing. Villages, roads and riverbeds grow small, and the sky gets enormous.

  8. Small white porcelain cups and a teapot laid out on a wooden table

    Series 08 · From the table to the hill

    Tea Table

    2022–2024 · 6 frames · Chengdu and western Sichuan

    Chengdu cannot do without tea. A quiet little series, from a single table in a teahouse to the people bent over the bushes on the hillside.

  9. A wooden spiral staircase lit from the side by a single beam of light

    Series 09 · The bones of the city

    Light and Line

    2020–2025 · 6 frames · Chengdu

    Chengdu’s architecture and sky. Curves, the colour of wood, a shaft of light slanting in. No people, just the skeleton of the city.

About

About Ye Chuan

I never studied photography. I started with a second-hand camera, and it became the way I keep a record of this city.