Ten Thousand Li of the Yangtze River (Shenpu)

Since the mid-1990s, Michael Cherney has primarily used photography as his creative medium. He has traveled extensively across China's mountains, rivers, historical sites, and cities, focusing on landscapes that continuously emerge, fade away, and are reborn over time. In his work, photography serves not only as a sharp capture of fleeting realities but also as a vehicle for an ongoing exploration of the relationship between our viewing experience and the passage of time. By employing techniques such as segmentation, juxtaposition, and sequential unfolding, and by deliberately diminishing clarity and detail, Michael Cherney presents his images in a state that hovers between the blurred and the clear. This creates an open narrative that invites viewers to engage their own perceptions and imaginations. In his creative process, he draws on the viewing perspectives and mounting formats of ancient Chinese painting—such as album leaves, handscrolls, and hanging scrolls—to infuse a dynamic and flowing rhythm into the still photographic moment. In doing so, he liberates photography from a singular, fixed perspective and frame, nurturing a more multidirectional and continuous viewing experience.
 
The Ten Thousand Li of the Yangtze River series (2010–2015) consists of 42 handscroll-format photographic works, including Shenpu, Haimen, and Tongzhou, which are featured in this exhibition. Before creating this series, Michael Cherney primarily referenced an anonymous Song dynasty handscroll of the same title, housed in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Using the locations indicated on the ancient scroll as a starting point, he employed satellite maps and coordinate systems to accurately determine his shooting locations and plan his itinerary. This series traverses the expansive geographical stretch of the Yangtze River, from its source to its mouth, moving from west to east. It captures not only the turbulent cross-sections of gorges and canyons and historical sites like ancient cities and grottoes, but also the geographical changes brought about by waves of industrialization and urbanization.