Scroll, A4 (長卷)

Little in this photograph reveals its location. It could almost

be a rural scene, but Xing Danwen made these images of still water and swimmers within the bustling global metropolis of Beijing. The photograph comes from her Scroll Series, a larger body of work in which she documented urban spaces and people at leisure around the city. She made these panoramic photographs at a time when China’s booming economy was spurring immense changes in old patterns of social life as well as massive shifts within the urban fabric of cities like Beijing. Indeed, because of such rapid transformations, the place, activity, and atmosphere depicted here have likely been radically altered in the decade since Xing made this photograph.

The markings at top and bottom of the print reveal Xing’s process. She made this photograph using a single role of film—without any digital manipulation or editing—to create what she calls a “complete composition.” For Xing, this method also echoes the narrative flow of cinema, which is more important

to her than its connections to Chinese art history: “The format is exceptionally long, narrow, and horizontal. However, the works’ dimensions should not be misconstrued as an attempt to re-create traditional Chinese hand scroll painting.”