Documentary photographer, Ian Teh, traveled to the regions along the Yangtze River to capture the impact of the Three Gorges Dam on the landscape and the individuals who lived there. Over a period of four years in the early 2000s, Teh photographed a collection of images that depicted the development and destruction in the region. He compiled these photographs into a series known as, The Vanishing: Altered Landscapes and Displaced Lives, of which this image is a part. From Teh’s caption, this image is of “the destroyed old city of Wanzhou [, where] mostly migrant workers remain[ed] to dismantle the city by hand in 2002” (Ian Teh). I selected this image for inclusion because it visually demonstrates the process of destruction and relocation involved in the construction of the megadam on the Yangtze River. Additionally, Teh’s work, like Yung Chang’s, recognizes and illustrates how the Three Gorges Dam affected this area of China.
Source: Teh, Ian. “The Vanishing.” Open Rivers: Rethinking Water, Place & Community, no.8, 2017, https://editions.lib.umn.edu/openrivers/article/the-vanishing/.