Man in a tram. Kolkata, West Bengal, India, October 6, 2008.

Passers-by,
I remember lean ones among you,
Throats in the clutch of a hope,
Lips written over with strivings,
Mouths that kiss only for love.
Records of great wishes slept with,
Held long
And prayed and toiled for.

Yes,
Written on
Your mouths
And your throats
I read them
When you passed by.

Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967)

Fascinated by the elusive diversity of mankind, we question ourselves on the relation binding man to his environment.
We explore everyday social interactions while seeking to preserve their spontaneity.
Photography is a way to express our curiosity about life and its expressions, beyond cultural and language barriers.

I have been in many places: crops link farmhouses
day follows night.
Flowery clothes dry in sunshine on fences
women winnow grain, sort beans
ocher ox bends, drinks beside canal
oh, it drinks earth’s boundless suffering

I love the lay of China’s land
because I have never traveled elsewhere.

I love the sunset on that ditch
and I love every dialect, the posture of peasants working
the angle of bending grass
a few burial mounds, people fading in the distance

this is indeed my motherland:
superstition and war stalk every inch of its skin
these are indeed my people:
in the wind, lives like reeds

Poem by Li Nan
Translated by Steve Schroeder & Amy Liang

Tiananmen Square on summer holidays.
Urban development.
Spare time on weekends.
An intimate look on the passing time in contemporary China.