The Friction of Everyday Life

Between 2008 and 2010, my project was supported by the Rafael Vinoly Architecture Fellowship. I used my cameras to capture the reality of urban housing and city dwellers in two of China’s major cities – Shenzhen and Shanghai. These photographs were initially taken for research purposes.

With passage of time, I realized that the images and my process of exploring the metropolises speak beyond the boundaries of what they were originally intended to be. In this collection, I sorted the images according to various methods of archiving to examine and survey complex issues that city dwellers – both the natives and the migrants – were dealing with at conscious and unconscious levels.

This archive provides numerous vantage points to viewers and provides an insight into the context and commonality of situations.

To me, it is the friction of everyday life.