# Project Description Riverside Meihe Chen Summary Final work My photography explores themes as varied as feminism, family relationships, and broader social issues. At first glance, my works may seem disparate, yet they are united by a common thread—they stem from experiences and subjects that resonate deeply with me. Through each image, I aim to capture and reflect the intricacies of these issues in a way that feels personal and real. While my medium is photography, I rarely print my images on paper. Instead, I am drawn to experimenting with unconventional materials, seeking those that best align with the message and emotional tone of each piece. By challenging the boundaries of photographic presentation, I hope to create a sensory and immersive experience, encouraging viewers to engage with the work on a more profound level. In my work, I strive not only to document but to provoke thought and inspire empathy, bridging the gap between the personal and the universal. My photography explores themes as varied as feminism, family relationships, and broader social is... College London College of Communication Course MA Photography Graduation year 2024 This project combines archival photographs with my own images to tell the story of those people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China. Using a Polaroid film transfer technique, the images transfer onto stones collected from the Yangtze riverbank. Arranged in chronological order form the shape of the river itself, the stones are accompanied by a soundscape that captures the sounds of those who once lived along the river. The work explores how the past feels like casting a small stone into the Yangtze River, leaving no lasting mark except for the brief ripples on the surface. Final work The Three Gorges Dam I visited the Three Gorges Dam again this summer and took pictures of it with film that had expired twenty years ago. The random and uncontrollable images presented by expired film are, in my opinion, just like human memories, with the passage of time a lot of things will be gradually blurred and untraceable. The Forgotten Shoe These shoes made of grass were the most common shoes used by people who once lived in the Yangtze River basin. However, with the migration of people and the development of the times, this kind of shoe with regional characteristics has almost not been used in daily life. Sound of past This is the sound of people who used to live in the area flooded by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam, which I recorded at the Three Gorges Migrants Museum at Zigui. Research and process 出三峡记 Notes on Emigration from the Three Gorges The book called Notes on Emigration from the Three Gorges played a very significant role in my research process. Notes on Emigration from the Three Gorges, which began on 13 August 2000 and ended on 28 August 2004, is a book about the Chinese government's efforts to relocate nearly 166,000 immigrants from the Three Gorges Reservoir area in Chongqing and Hubei to 11 provinces and municipalities, including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, and Sichuan, for the successful implementation of the Three Gorges Project. In five years, the author of ‘Notes on Emigration from the Three Gorges’ went deep into the hinterland of the Three Gorges 16 times to explore and approach the truth of this special migratory event by means of words and images, trying to present the state of the great migration process of this group of ‘non-voluntary immigrants’. 大水来临时 下面的一切都成了从前 从前的一切都成了留言 在这里 没了起点 When the river arrives, Everything below becomes the past, Everything from the past turns into words. I, Here, Have no home. -excerpt from Notes on Emigration from the Three Gorges Share this project This project combines archival photographs with my own images to tell the story of those people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China. Using a Polaroid film transfer technique, the images transfer onto stones collected from the Yangtze riverbank. Arra... A link to this page has been added to your clipboard Browse related work Histories Materiality Politics