13 before-and-after photos that show how drastically China's cities have grown over the last century
To a local who has been around for decades and seen the old side of some of these photos, it might bring memories of those times," Venkatraman said. "To a young cosmopolitan person, they might view these photos with curiosity and awe about what things really looked like before. To a futurist, it might invoke thoughts about what changes are yet to come in the next 30-40 years.
Venkatraman wants the images to convey different emotions for each viewer.
"There are many thoughts that can be taken away from these, positive, neutral, negative alike, and I'd like to leave that up to the reader to interpret," he said.
By 2010, six cities had 10 million residents, and 10 cities had between five and 10 million.
Source: Bloomberg
China used more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the US did in an entire century.
Source: The Washington Post
This helped create the large cities and skylines you can see there today.
Many people in China live in high- or low-rise buildings made out of cement, unlike in the US, where most houses are made of wood.
Source: The Washington Post
China is home to some of the world's tallest skyscrapers and largest shopping malls.
Venkatraman decided to photograph in black and white to create a more "apples-to-apples" comparison.
"I decided to flatten everything to black and white to eliminate all the distractions from insignificant objects — e.g. bright street signs, neon-colored rain jackets — and allow the viewer to focus on the more massive changes in buildings and cities," Venkatraman said.
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