Dutch artist reimagines cityscapes in Beijing solo

From Shenzhen to S?o Paulo and from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, Dutch photographer Frank van der Salm, 61, has travelled the world over the last 30 years to document urban landscapes, resulting in a stunning oeuvre that both enthralls and confuses the audience.

In his aesthetically irresistible photographs, where human presence is rare, urban architecture around the world is shiny and futuristic but appears increasingly homogeneous. Some of the photos, due to their shallow depth of field, such as Site (2008), which portrays the sprawling high-rises in Dubai, strike viewers as architectural models presented by ambitious real estate developers.

Van der Salm's mid-career retrospective, Nowhere — Imagining the Global City, curated by Bas Vroege, brings together approximately 30 works from the artist's decades-long practice and is on display at the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre in Beijing.

In his speech at the exhibition's opening on July 11, Dutch Ambassador to China André Haspels said: "The title Nowhere is clever. It plays with the words 'now' and 'here,' but also 'nowhere'. But behind the word game lies something serious. This exhibition asks us to reflect on how we live, how we build, and how we connect in a world of global cities."