November marked the 30th anniversary of the central government proclamation that instigated the opening-up and development of Shanghai’s Pudong. Photographer Wu Jianping captured the district as it transformed from a shantytown into a glass and steel world finance, trade and tech hub. We sat down with him to hear his story.
Wu Jianping fell in love with photography before he even owned a camera. “I was born in 1958 in a small mountain village in western Zhejiang province, in an ordinary plumber’s family,” Wu explains.
“My village was submerged by an artificial lake created by a hydropower station, and my first job was on the construction of the power station, blacksmithing, forging track pins and fasteners for bulldozers, excavators and dump trucks.”