This series of photos was taken in May 2019 at Chengdu, the capital of southwestern China’s Sichuan province. Chengdu is known to be one of the happiest cities in China and has many famous sites to visit. Visitors can see endangered giant pandas in their natural habitat, eat spicy Sichuan food, visit tea houses scattered throughout the city and see cultural Chinese performances.

Roman’s interest in Chengdu was with the people, not the tourist sites. He wanted to capture everyday life photographing streetscape themes and catching a glimpse of how the residents live.

Spending two weeks, Roman wondered the streets of Chengdu taking these photographs. All of the photos were taken and composed on a tripod. He took several images and blended components of each image to form the final photo. He visited several areas of the city including Tianfu Square, Wuhou Memorial, the Peoples Park as well as back streets to capture everyday life in Chengdu. 

Chengdu is a modern city with a long history dating back to the Fourth Century BC. What makes this city interesting is the modern 20th century sky scrapers, shopping centres and buildings combined with many neighbourhoods with traditional buildings and architecture that still has a local Chinese feel and ambience. 

In general, the Chinese locals were not bothered by Romans presence and would mostly ignore him. This is probably why Chengdu is known for its happiness as the locals look relaxed and chilled. On a few occasions, locals would pose for a photo, or take an interest in seeing how he was photographing the scene and what setting he had on the camera. This made the whole process an enjoyable one when photographing the streets. Chengdu is a truely unique experience that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. 

About Roman Wolczak