Yan Jiacheng reflects on how people adapt to rapidly changing urban environments, and how public space continues to function as a stage for collective life.
Since 2020, I have been photographing a suburban district on the outskirts of Guangzhou, China. Although geographically close to the city centre, this area exists in a different rhythm. It is a place of unfinished development, temporary landscapes, and everyday routines that often go unnoticed.
Rather than focusing on dramatic events, I am interested in the ordinary moments that shape daily life: people gathering in open spaces, resting after work, exercising, waiting, or simply spending time together. Through repeated visits over several years, I began to see the suburb not as a transitional zone, but as a place with its own social logic and emotional texture.
The project reflects on how people adapt to rapidly changing urban environments and how public space continues to function as a stage for collective life. By returning to the same locations again and again, I attempt to build a portrait of a community through accumulation, repetition, and observation.
Night in the Suburbs is both a record of a specific place and an exploration of contemporary suburban life in China.
Yan Jiacheng is a Chinese photographer and visual artist based in Guangzhou, China. Working primarily with photography, his practice focuses on suburban life, labour, migration, and the social landscapes of contemporary China.
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