China – textured black and white photography by Bastien Pons
China unfolds in layers — ancient and hypermodern, crowded and silent, solid and elusive. In this black and white series, Bastien Pons captures fleeting impressions of a country in constant transformation, where contrasts collide and dissolve.
Rather than documenting iconic sites, the images focus on textures, surfaces, atmospheres: peeling walls, dense fog, distant figures, the quiet geometry of a forgotten street. What interests Pons is not what defines China, but what slips through the cracks.
Shot in urban and rural areas alike, the photographs invite stillness in the face of movement. They explore what resists visibility — the haze, the friction, the emotional undercurrent beneath appearances.
Pons’ background in electroacoustic music and sound design informs his approach: each image is like a sonic residue, layered and raw, more about perception than representation. China becomes a space of tension and ambiguity, where silence holds weight.
This series resonates with those drawn to introspective travel photography, minimalist black and white images, and a sensory, poetic experience of place.