Photographers create visual gazetteer of Wandi village

A group photo of village residents is displayed at the Liyuan Photography Art Museum. [Photo/Yongpai app]

After six months of fieldwork, a photography exhibition has opened in Ningbo, offering up a layered portrait of a village, tracing its people, memory, and potential future.

Being held at the Liyuan Photography Art Museum in Yinzhou Park, the Desirable Village — Wandi Village exhibition brings together works by more than 20 photographers who spent half a year documenting Wandi village in Yinzhou district. Guided by photographers Hu Xiaoyang and Qiu Zhiwei, the project offers a collective snapshot of the village at a specific moment in time, while offering insights into its past and future.

The exhibition reflects on what makes a village desirable in the context of rural change, everyday life, cultural continuity and ideas of the future.

A standout work by Wang Bolei features more than 800 villagers in a single group portrait assembled from 22 images. The result goes captures a moment of unity that is increasingly rare in modern life.

Other series expand the time frame. Wang Yanhe's work on Zhangbin Bridge follows the structure's long history as a link between rural and urban life.

Hu Heping's AI-based series pushes in the opposite direction, imagining how the village might evolve beyond the current farmland and traditional housing to become a landscape shaped by automation and smart agriculture.

Together with series on daily life, ecology and local customs, the works build a complete picture of Wandi as it is and as it could be. A handmade photo book by Yu Ting adds a more personal layer, drawing on decades of observations and field notes.

The exhibition runs through April 15 and offers a look at how a village can be seen not as a fixed place, but as something continuously rewritten through time.