Photographer Kris Provoost Captures Futuristic Chinese Megapolis Where Vertical Infrastructure Clashes With Local Traditions On The Riverbanks

In 1968, China embarked on a journey of reform that saw its once closed-off Communist society open-up to the rapidly globalizing world around it. This transformation of mentality, economics, and culture was set to transform the People’s Republic of China into a modern superpower.

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Over the course of four decades, China experienced the largest and fastest industrialization and urbanization in the world. The city of Chongqing is an embodiment of China’s liberation to development, especially in the past five years. Belgium architecture photographer Kris Provoost has documented this burgeoning megacity’s rise to futuristic heights, and problems that plague it through his ‘Human vs City’ series.

“Over the course of 3 days, I ventured out in the city to capture this machine with a focus on certain keywords: density, humanity, transportation. 20 photos showing how people move around the city, 20 photos showing the intense density that is needed to keep a city running, 20 photos blending the past and the future into one, 20 photos showing how people deal with this insanity. ‘Human vs City’ is photo-essay capturing a moment in time (April 2019) in the midst of further exponential growth,” he wrote.