Day Five

Image 5

Migrant Workers, photograph by David Butow. Source.

This image shows migrant construction workers who have recently moved to Shanghai. They have yet to find a place to live, as evidenced by their suitcases, but have begun working on a new skyscraper project. The image’s original caption reads, “A mural of pastoral woodland gives migrant workers from China’s countrysides a touch of home at a Shanghai construction site,” and notes the importance of the pastoral in traditional Chinese life. The mural rises above the workers, preventing those near it from viewing the cranes and drills behind the fence that the photographer captured.

This image was chosen for the fifth and final day of projection as a summative interpretation of the nature of migration from rural to urban areas. The viewer will hopefully note the irony present within the image; the workers left their rural homes seeking prosperity in Shanghai, only to be confronted upon arrival with the landscape have forsaken. The image also serves as a commentary on the illusion of the pastoral landscape, which can only provide a sense of escapism once humans have left the countryside.