Yangkun Shi SOLASTALGIA

Many people experience nostalgia. Less common is solastalgia, a form of melancholy evoked by environmental changes in familiar places that no longer exist in their original form. The latter is what Yangkun Shi experienced when he returned to his hometown of Shangshui, China, after leaving to study first at Anqing Normal University, and then at the London College of Communication, where he received his MFA in photojournalism and documentary photography in 2016. “Every time I was back [in Shangshui}, it was different, not only the environment—the high buildings, the volume of cars, the crazy driving on the street—but also the people around me: my friends, my childhood friends, my relatives,” he says. “People are eager for quick success and weath.”

On a trip home for the summer holiday, he spent time walking around Shangshui, taking photographs of scenes that really touched him or evoked specific memories. He realized he had grown up in a world full of contradictions. “I was born in the 1990s—my generation experienced a lot of freedom because of globalization and the Internet,” he says. “On the other hand, the environment surrounding me was very traditional and conservative.” So conservative that his parents, despite being proud of his accomplishments, declined to tell their friends and relatives that he was in London studying photography. “To them it’s not ‘official business,’” he explains.

The resulting images are dreamlike and devastatingly beautiful, capturing a sense that both Shi’s childhood, and the more traditional China of his parents, is fading amid the country’s rapid change. It is a loss Shi still hasn’t recovered from; this spring, he will return to his hometown to continue photographing instances of solastalgia.

—Brienne Walsh

Photos © Yangkun Shi shiyangkun.com