In the past ten years, the photography footprints of the post-85 photographer Shenglong have spread across the streets and alleys of Changsha, Hunan. Last year alone, his total itinerary in Changsha exceeded 20,000 kilometers. The reason why I enjoy recording Changsha is endlessly based on his experience in college. After graduation, Shenglong chose to be a freelance photographer, hoping to use his own lens to record "the changes that have quietly happened around him." If the main roads and landmark buildings are the aorta of a city, then old neighborhoods and old streets are the capillaries of the city.
The charm of a city not only comes from tall buildings and dazzling neon lights, but also from the old streets and alleys accumulated by history and culture, as well as the urban atmosphere and the warmth between people. In his spare time, Shenglong will take his camera to "sweep the streets" in the old streets and alleys, and feel the changes and unchanging of this thousand-year-old ancient city.
After the quality improvement and transformation, the water, electricity, pipelines and other infrastructures have been continuously improved, making residents' lives more convenient. But at the same time, they retain the fireworks of the old Changsha. Walking in it, you can still feel the "unchanging" charm of the past.
65 years old this year is an indigenous person from the old streets and alleys of Changsha, Chaozong Street, and has lived here for the rest of his life. In recent years, the center of Changsha where Chaozong Street is located has been changing with each passing day, but Chaozong Street has experienced ups and downs and still maintains the original lifestyle of the old Changsha.
Architecture is a solidified history, and context is the soul of the city. In 2018, Changsha officially launched organic renewal in the old city, gradually exploring a new path of "maintaining as the main focus, retaining, replacing and demolition with equal importance", optimizing the urban space function and retaining the texture of the streets and alleys of the old city. While improving the living environment and residents' sense of happiness in the old city, the historical memory of the city is also preserved. The organically updated old city has also entered new business formats.
Old Street Alley Taiping Street is an internet celebrity check-in place in Changsha in recent years. As a historical and cultural block, Taiping Street has regained its vitality by introducing new business formats on the basis of retaining the original block structure.
A coffee shops, beverage shops and bookstores with a literary atmosphere, the new business formats in the old streets and alleys are also attracting more and more young people to come to check in and take photos and walk around.
Today's Changsha has organically integrated history and prosperity. Shenglong said that in the next ten, twenty or thirty years, he will continue to use the lens to freeze the changes and unchanges under these time dimensions, leaving a mark of growth for his hometown, Changsha.
