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Ye Chuan

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.

Roads on the plateau hardly bend, and you can see a long way. Some days I meet only three cars, and I can never decide whether it feels lonely or like relief.

I left no room for people in these pictures. Up there, a person is already the smallest dot there is.

Sky

Cloud pressing down on distant snow peaks, light leaking through the gaps
▸ 01Mountain pass · September 2023
Snow mountains turned gold at sunset
▸ 02Golden summit · September 2023

Roads

A small Tibetan village on a scrubby hillside
▸ 03Village · October 2023
A straight road running out toward golden grass hills
▸ 04Highway · October 2023
From above, a river splitting into thin threads across a dry gravel bed
▸ 05Riverbed · October 2023
A switchbacking road crossing rolling hillsides
▸ 06Heading down · October 2023