“Before coming to Shanghai I had heard that at one point 50% of the world’s construction cranes were employed here. This had a certain fascination.” – Peter Dixie
Peter Dixie‘s Hinterland series is a photographic exploration of the changing landscape at the outer limits of Shanghai’s Metro network. Dixie studies the outskirts, or Hinterland, of Shanghai. In his statement, he describes his methodical way of working, “in which each image there is some centrally placed object, a space being constructed around this, and by drawing an ordinary object out of the landscape, and elevating its status compositionally, it is given a significance that in passing perhaps it would not have. As an identified and preserved object, it is enshrined, withdrawn from its mundane original context, and recreated as an object of contemplation. Hence each image presents a site of contemplation.
The series deals with one city, Shanghai, but has relevance to the idea of the city in general, as event, as a complete historical entity with a finite life, a bounded space. As with any event, its existence is discreet. This does not mean that limits exist in a clear sense. The boundaries of an event shift and break upon examination. This series looks beyond the city at what will be city, the becoming-city, the future-city.” Dixie is working on this extended project while also shooting full-time as an architectural photographer in Shanghai.
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