Steel Mill Of My Hometown Lianjie, China

Began with my nostalgia, I went back China to visit my family during July of 2012 and I completed a photo project about the steel mill in my hometown.

My hometown Lianjie, is a very small town in southwestern China,  it is located in a hilly area between Chengdu and Chongqing.  It is 200 kilometer away from Chengdu the capital city of Sichuan Province.

I was born and grew up in there till I was 10 years old.  I went to kindergarden and elementary school there,  and almost all my childhood memories was from that small town.  

As long as I can remember, steel industrial was the only industrial in my hometown. My parents and all my other family relatives since my grandparent's generation were all working for this steel mill and some of them are still working and living in there, this is one of a reason I went back to my hometown last summer.  

There always a calling for me as a photographer,

"No matter where did I go to explore the world, 

No matter how many years has past in my life,

No matter who I have become in these years.

I still feel that my life is connecting with somewhere I was born 

and somewhere contains my childhood, 

my family history, the generations of my family,
The working class family in China,

The steel mill of my hometown."

I remember, when I was a little kid, I have never seen the sky as blue as the sky in Texas,  the sky in my hometown was always dark and grey and sometimes when they were excreting the smokes from the factor, the sky turned red, yellow and brown....at night, when I went to sleep, I heard the sound of forging metals...this is probably why sometimes I have bad dreams of the air pollution disasters and giant black smith forges metal under the ground of my house.

I was very scary to get into the real steel mill, because of my childhood memories. However, I knew I don't want this fear to destroy me, I wanted to know what is the steel real looks like, what is the reality of the inhabit of the steel mill workers?  I wanted my camera to revel the reality and to be the witness of the truth.  

I asked my father, "can I go to the steel mill to take some photos for my art portfolio?" Obviously, my father knew the reality of the steel mill, because he was one of the managers of the steel mill and also when he was young, he was hired to take photo for the steel to report the steel mill safety and environmental condition.  When my father heard my question he hesitated for a while and then he called my uncle his older brother who is dealing with the safety investigation of the steel mill.  Then my uncle came, he took me and my father to his office, and let us put the safety helmet on and wear the worker's uniform up. Then he guided us into the steel mill.

The steel mill is filled with heat, noise and stinky smells of chemical air. During the summer, the steel mill environment is even worse. I couldn't tell how aweful I felt when heat gains to 120 farenheit (48 Celcius) and we all wear the big and heave worker's jacket to protect us from the injure.  I couldn't image how could these steel mill workers deal with this kind of temperature for years. The steel mill machines were making crazy noises, there was no way that we can hear each other if we don't talk close to our ears. I saw the workers were gathering close to the machine, the water sprayed out from the machine and cool the red metal down.  One of the workers walked closer to the machine and tried to make the machine is on the right sitting and he has to watch the whole process of the metal cooling down.  I was right above this worker, he was standing over there without any movement for three or five minutes. However, the steams came out from the cooling metals and floating up to the whole space till the roof of the factor.  In my mind, I saw machine is actually a creature, which has my characteristic than the worker, become in front of these massive and dangerous machine. The life of human is threatened, because our bodies are fragile and temporary, it can be harmed and killed immediately by using machine and other mechanic weapons.  One of the picture was taken during the Tiananmen Square Revolution in 1989 by Stuart Franklin, called Tank Man, has sub-conciously inspired me to create my image of the steel mills workers.

In general, My photographs of the steel mill in my hometown of Lianjie, China depict the life of Chinese steel mill workers and the industrial setting they inhabit.  The photographs emphasize a despair and sorrow that seem to linger throughout the highly polluted environment. The fire, smoke, machines, and metals occupy a larger space, and thus, tell more of a story than any one person could.  My intent was to illustrate a reality of alienation and de-humanization of this industrial world. At the same time, I try to narrate a general history of industrial revolution in the whole world.  The industrial revolution costs natural environment and human heath.