China – Suzhou Faces

This group of portraits is from the city of Suzhou in China, just northwest of Shanghai. Suzhou has ancient classical gardens and canals that draw people in, but what I love about the place are the pathways and intimate neighborhoods of its old center. In these warrens of narrow streets and walkways, created long before any sort of mechanized transportation, life edges out from private homes and small workplaces into public spaces. Little cooking and kitchen setups are often just outside the entrance to modest homes. People relax, visit, hang laundry, and work on small projects in the transition areas between street and home. Streams of bicycles and scooters, often with kids perched on the back, flow through the narrow passages. Life is happening in this public/private realm, rather than behind doors that people rush through and close – and people are typically not as guarded. I hope you enjoy these photographs!