Tim Franco’s “Metamorpolis” – Exhibition

The construction of China’s Three Gorges dam, the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, meant relocating over a million people as the land they lived on at the time would be consumed by swelling reservoirs. A great number of those farmers, villagers, and small-town residents were suddenly thrust into Chongqing, a heaving industrial giant carved up by rivers and mountains. Hundreds of thousands of residents – young and old alike – had to find out how to exist in a city when many of them had never been to one before. And Chongqing’s population skyrocketed, to over 30 million people.

Metamorpolis is exploring the efect of ultra urbanisation and its social impact. The photos, taken over a few years, are looking at how a largely rural population is struggling to find its spaces into a fast developping megapolis. The photographs are looking at the conflicts between the concrete urban rise and the nature and how its inhabitants using the spaces they are left with.

Tim Franco is Franco-Polish freelance photographer based in Asia. A strong beliver of ‘art in photography”, Tim comes from a documentary background. His work has received international exposure in prestigious global publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Nesweek, the Financial Times or Le Monde. Tim’s passion for the social and urban transformation of modern China has given him a unique vision and approach to photography. He is currently working on a long term project about the Korean Peninsula. 

Date: from October 5 to December 7, 2018
Venues: Confucius Institute, 22 allée François Mitterrand, and Dazuma restaurant, 44 Rue Beaurepaire, Angers
Organizers: Confucius Institute, in partenership with Passage Sainte-Croix de Nantes
Photographer: Tim Franco
See full program: www.confucius-angers.eu/metamorpolis-une-exposition-de-tim-franco
See Metamorpolis on Tim Franco’s website: www.timfranco.com/metamorpolis/chongqing/china/megacity/urban