A PHOTO exhibition themed “In Search of the City’s Roots” was opened at the Nantou Ancient City Museum. At the exhibition, photographer Chen Zonghao’s works, which have captured the changes Shenzhen has undergone since the reform and opening up, attracted the attention of many viewers.

Over the past 30 years, Chen has traveled to almost every mountaintop in Shenzhen, taking nearly 14,000 photos and recording the city every year with panoramic image stitching.

He has donated the precious photos to the Shenzhen Museum and Nanshan Museum for collection and exhibition in hopes that more people have the opportunity to visualize the changes in the city. According to a staffer of Shenzhen Museum, Chen is one of the three people in Shenzhen who have recorded the history of the city through photography.

In 1980, then 35-year-old Chen came to the newly established special economic zone from Hainan Province. He admitted that he first dabbled in photography because of work for the purpose of collecting information for preservation. Recording changes in Shenzhen was just a hobby.

In 1997, after he donated some pictures to the Shenzhen Museum, he found it contained a very meaningful sense of mission, so he resolved to stick with it.

It’s not an easy job to do well. “One has to get up early, take the heat and wait when taking pictures,” said Chen, whose pictures were mostly taken at noon in July, August and September at the hottest time of the day. “As I am taking pictures from the broad view, the air has the best transparency at noon for clear pictures and the brightness of the scenery in all directions can be the same.”

In order to shoot optimal shots, he usually finds secluded cliffs where no trees or foliage obstruct the view and few people passing by. When asked if it is dangerous, Chen said, “Just be careful.” He usually stands in one place, such as the top of Nanshan Mountain, and then turns his body to take four consecutive photos within a dozen seconds to get a panorama.

After the shooting, Chen sorts through the photos. “My father would spend a lot of time sorting out photos. He was so fascinated that he forgot to have meals or go to sleep,” said his son, Chen Zhidong.

In the beginning, without digital stitching and photomontage, Chen had to stitch the pictures together by hand. After learning to use computer in 2004, it became much easier for him to scan the pictures before stitching them together. “I was 59 years old when I started to learn how to use computers. I signed up for a class and asked the teacher to teach me how to turn the power on and off, and how to use photo stitching software, nothing else,” Chen said bluntly.

At present, he only takes pictures of Shenzhen in June, July and August each year, in places where he can photograph changes in the cityscape. “I can take up for four or five more years at most before I can’t move. But Shenzhen is still developing, so I hope young people can take it on.” (Zhang Yu)Chen Zonghao with two of the panoramic images of Shenzhen. SD-Agencies