New exhibition charts the continuity and evolution of Suzhou

An exhibition of photographs spanning more than four decades opened on Saturday at AimerArt, a contemporary art museum in Beijing. The show offers a restrained yet evocative portrait of Suzhou, in Jiangsu province, a city long associated with canals, gardens, and quiet cultural continuity.

Titled Gusu City · My Homeland in Wu Land, the exhibition brings together 98 images by the photographer Gong Gang, tracing both the endurance and transformation of the historical water town.

Inside the gallery, viewers move between past and present: the silhouette of Beisi Pagoda, the weathered stones of Pan Gate, and fleeting gestures of street life.

At the entrance, a reconstructed darkroom alludes to the material origins of photography. Nearby, early black-and-white works taken with a Hasselblad camera depict the landscape of Taihu Lake with quiet, meditative clarity.

Gong's relationship with photography began in 1981 when, at 13, he took his first image of Suzhou's moat. Initially drawn to painting, he turned to photography under the influence of a mentor, committing himself to both fieldwork and darkroom practice. That commitment has now spanned more than 40 years.