2005 Photo Contest, Contemporary Issues, 3rd prize
Photographer

Alessandro Digaetano

Polaris Images

10 October, 2004

A young man poses in the ruins of his former home, in Shanghai, China. A migrant worker, he was living in the building that it was his job to demolish. 

As the manufacturing sector in China burgeoned, the plan for the first quarter of the 21st century was to move as many as 400 million people from rural areas to the cities. In Shanghai, traditional shikumen houses from the 19th century, as well as a variety of early 20th-century colonial-period buildings, were flattened to make way for new high-rises as the city expanded. Internal migration in China remains one of the most extensive in the world.

About the photographer

Alessandro Digaetano

Alessandro Digaetano, who became a professional photographer in 2001, is particularly interested in social issues, architecture and urbanization. He currently lives on the hills ...

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