Chongqing, on the Four Banks of Time’s Flow – Photographs by Cyrus Cornut

Throughout the month of May, for the^third consecutive year, the Orangerie at the Jardin des Plantes is hosting an exhibition by artist Cyrus Cornut in the “Parallèle” section of the Boutographies festival, a major photography event in Montpellier.

Photographer Cyrus Cornut, an architect by training, focuses his work primarily on the city—its form, its evolution, its traces, its voids—and on the human behaviors it elicits.
In 2006, his first series on Chinese cities was exhibited at the Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie d’Arles under the artistic direction of Raymond Depardon. Beginning in 2011, his research also turned to the role of vegetation in the urban landscape. This led him to create a series in 2017 on the world’s largest metropolis, Chongqing, China.

The municipality of Chongqing, in the People’s Republic of China, has experienced one of the world’s fastest rates of population and economic growth, and now has a population of 34 million.
Chongqing, the “Mountain City,” crisscrossed by the Yangtze and Jialing Rivers, struggles to break through the thick fog that shrouds it year-round.
Urban forms and infrastructure have sprung up, defying gravity, hugging the contours of its four steep banks, carved by its waterways. The pace of urbanization has left behind the slow rhythm of the fishermen, the erosion of the rivers, and the powerful emergence of the mountains.

In this work, Cyrus Cornut presents a striking exploration of visual contrasts, through which his vision of humanity—in its relationship to society and its environment—shines through.