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Dust Never Sleeps: Photographer explores the urban landscapes of Shanghai

In his series Dust Never Sleeps, Italian street photographer Alessandro Zanoni aims to document the urbanisation of Shanghai and the changing neighbourhoods and heritage architecture. Although his images reveal the effects of fast city growth and all its associated flaws, Zanoni is in fact head over heels in love with Shanghai's urban landscapes, and is a regular visitor to its streets.

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Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the photographer

Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the photographer

Speaking to Shanghai Street Stories, he said: "I guess that what strikes observant visitors in China the most is the quick growth of the country. A growth that probably does not care too much about people history, traditions, health or happiness. A growth also relating to the unprecedented mass migration of people from countryside to the megalopolis. With my shots, I’m trying to convey this feeling to Westerners who have never been to Shanghai before. It’s a sort of alienation that in my country, Italy, for example, it was thoroughly documented in the fifties and in the sixties, especially in some cinematic masterpieces.

"After World War II in Europe, we experienced strong urbanisation trend because war had destroyed most of the cities. In Italy, this process was not totally 'clean' but sometimes subjected to bribes and 'black money'. The people’s happiness was not on the top list of priorities for politicians and big developers. People were forced to leave the countryside to move to big cities in order to work: they lost any genuine contact (with their hometowns) and many of the human relationships were broken. Hence, people were actually 'empty' like the buildings in my photos. Desolate, alone, and broken: a strong visual metaphor of human beings. Where is the focus? Where is the direction? They were completely lost."

Read more about the series over on Shanghai Street Stories. Or check out Zanoni's portfolio on Behance.

Red and beige cable car cabins suspended over Shanghai's sprawling urban landscape with hazy cityscape and waterways below
Two figures sit beneath the shadow of a street sign on a paved Shanghai street beside a red-fronted shop with Chinese characters
Desolate construction site in Shanghai with scattered rubble and a blue container fence, surrounded by high-rise apartment blocks and lower buildings under overcast skies
Rubble and demolition debris scattered across a building site, with deteriorating residential structures and modern high-rise apartment towers visible in the background under a hazy sky
Weathered single-storey building with dark wooden door and overgrown vines, dwarfed by modern apartment towers in Shanghai's urban landscape
Construction site with barriers and cranes in front of Shanghai's high-rise skyline during urban development
Industrial scrapyard with stacked materials and vehicles in foreground, Shanghai's high-rise skyline visible in hazy background
Large red Chinese characters on a billboard stand before apartment buildings and a distinctive water tower in Shanghai's urban landscape
Shanghai railway station with steel lattice bridge structure spanning multiple tracks, surrounded by urban high-rises under hazy sky
Diagonal cables of a bridge frame residential and commercial high-rise buildings in Shanghai's urban skyline
A dark sedan parked in a dilapidated courtyard surrounded by weathered pink-brick buildings with tangled overhead wires in Shanghai
Derelict urban site surrounded by crumbling white walls and rubble, with a pink brick residential building visible in the background amid Shanghai's rapid urban development
Dilapidated alleyway in Shanghai with crumbling buildings, white walls, scattered debris and a solitary black car amid urban decay
Empty concrete road lined with construction barriers and metal fencing, with tall residential and office buildings under construction in the background under hazy skies in Shanghai
Concrete industrial buildings with a metal gate in the foreground overlook Shanghai's dense high-rise skyline on a hazy day
Rooftop terrace with wooden decking overlooking a modernist building with repetitive window grid and enclosed walkway, Shanghai
Pink-roofed single-storey buildings stand amid construction debris in the shadow of tall Shanghai skyscrapers under overcast skies
Urban cityscape of Shanghai showing tall residential and office buildings with a parking sign visible on the left and a rooftop swimming pool in the foreground
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