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.

A small town’s roofs are the most honest thing about it. Which year the tiles were relaid, which families are thriving, it is all written up there.

I usually climb somewhere high first and look at the whole sweep of roofs, then go down and squeeze through the lanes, looking for the patch I’d just seen from above.

Roofs and eaves

A whole old town of grey tiled roofs beneath distant mountains — ▸ 01Northwest Yunnan · December 2024

An old house on a hillside in western Sichuan, white walls and dark timber, eaves stacked in layers — ▸ 02Western Sichuan · March 2023

Walking in

Stone houses along a narrow street, lights coming on in the blue hour — ▸ 03Dusk · December 2024

A river spilling over a gravel bank, a row of old houses on the far side, stone beasts under the eaves leaning out toward the water — ▸ 04By the river · November 2022

Timber houses stacked up a hillside, warm yellow light in the windows — ▸ 05Mountain village · November 2022

A narrow flagstone lane between grey-tiled eaves, the red lanterns already lit — ▸ 06Narrow lane · May 2021