Since leaving his full-time job in 2015 after graduating from college and working as an accountant for the professional services network Deloitte for seven years, Wang’s interest in trains and railway photography has gone from a hobby to his raison d’être. I did.
“I spend about three to five months every year on the road,” he says. “I have visited every province in mainland China countless times. I have also written travelogues of my experiences with images.
“I take inspiration from foreign books about China, such as Peter Hessler’s books. river town [2001] and michael mayer in manchuria [2015]It contains strong opinions about China. ”
I don’t know if railway photography will be banned or restricted, probably in the next few years. You have to take all the shots as quickly as possible.
In a country where social conformity and familial responsibility often trump notions of individualism, Wang appears on the surface to be a restless loner beset by vague obsessions. It may look like.
“I read all the news about railroad construction,” he says. “When a new railway opens, we study satellite maps in advance to determine camera positions, plan routes, and choose the best weather season for filming.
“I usually take a month or two to capture a particular section of a track.”
Wang had the travel gene in his DNA. Born in Shanghai in 1985 to parents from northern China, he was only two years old when his family was kicked out of their east coast home by his father and mother’s state-run employer.
“my parents’ Danway [work department] We were sent to live in an oasis town in Xinjiang. I remember the place being surrounded by cottonwood trees.
“We lived in a compound with our own cafeteria, transportation and even an in-house kindergarten, so we had little opportunity to make friends with the local kids. I went to Urumqi to buy groceries. Looking back, it was really an adventure.
“The air quality in Urumqi was good and the snow-capped Tien Shan mountains could be seen from the city center. My parents often took me to the bazaar and we ate mutton skewers, sprinkled with cumin and spices. I really liked the meat.”
After spending three years in the far west, the family moved again to Xi’an. “It was my first really big trip as far as I can remember. Nowadays it takes 25 hours by train from Urumqi to Xi’an, but back then it took three days.”
Life in Xi’an, which was very similar to life in Xinjiang, left a deep impression on the young king. “We lived on the northern outskirts of the city, surrounded by wheat fields. Tall poplar trees were planted on either side of the tractor path between the fields.
“Every summer night, people on the property would go out and use torches to carefully search for cicadas that were shedding their skins on tree trunks, and then take them home and fry them.It goes without saying that they are rich in protein, and they are delicious. It was.”
The Wang family moved back to Shanghai in 1994, a stroke of lucky timing. With former Shanghai mayor Jiang Zemin serving as general secretary of the Communist Party, the 1990s became the decade for Shanghai, marking the moment when it regained its status as the gilded “Pearl of the Orient” after decades of economic isolation. It was supposed to be.
“At that time, Pudong [an area on the east side of the Huangpu River that was made a special economic zone in 1990] It was basically an empty space. “The Oriental Pearl TV Tower was only half-built,” he recalls.
“My parents used to take me on sightseeing cruises on the Huangpu River, sailing from the Bund to Wusukou, where the Huangpu River joins the Yangtze River. I remember the smell gave me a bad impression.”
However, the situation quickly changed and, as he himself admitted, Wang’s youth took place on the world’s largest construction site. New ring roads, expressways, subways and railroad tracks run through the city, and across the river, former cabbage fields have begun to sprout concrete towers like bamboo groves on the muddy banks of the Huangpu River.
It was around this time that Wang discovered his passion for photography.
“My father was an avid amateur photographer and would always take pictures when we went on vacation. He taught me how to use a camera and, importantly, how to take landscape photos. ” he says.
“I used 36-exposure Kodak film. Film wasn’t cheap either, so I set the exposure carefully for fear of wasted photos or wasted shots. Then my family bought a digital camera. I started using it to take photos of cityscapes in my free time.”
From Wang’s childhood in the western desert to his college years in Shanghai, China’s railway infrastructure also developed rapidly. In 2008, the same year that Wang graduated from university, the Beijing-Tianjin intercity railway opened, ushering in the high-speed era.
But it wasn’t until 2012, when he was a full-time employee, that he started turning his attention to transportation. What set him apart from his peers was that he chose to photograph his subjects from above.
“My first drone was a DJI Inspire 1, which I bought in 2015. I found it very difficult to get into aerial photography. At that time, drone technology was still in its infancy, and I had several crashes. You should read the instructions carefully, then take a test flight and practice in an open area to become fully familiar with the operation.”
Drone technology has greatly expanded Wang’s reach, allowing him to capture new perspectives that, in his words, “show the characteristics of railways in different landscapes.”
“China is a vast country, and the landscapes in the north, south, west and coastal areas are really different.”
Despite the challenges of spending up to six months on the road, Wang says he has gotten used to the unusual lifestyle.
“In recent years, government social control has become increasingly strict, and the possibility of conflict with neighboring countries has also increased,” he says. “I don’t know if railway photography will be banned or restricted, probably in the next few years.
“Plus, as parents get older, we have to spend more time together. So we have to get all the shots we can as quickly as possible.”