Man Took the Exact Same Picture Every Day for a Year to Highlight Beijing’s Air Pollution

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Beijing’s air quality is infamous, but while statistics and technical facts can be shocking, one Beijing resident wanted to use the power of a photograph to drive home how bad it really is — well, actually, he used a few hundred photographs.

Zou Yi is a Beijing resident and for the past year, he has taken a picture of the same building at the same exact time of day. By itself each photo is unremarkable. But when you put a full year, 365 days worth, of pictures together into one massive diptych, his point about the air pollution becomes unavoidable:

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“Like a lot of people, I forget readings as soon as I read them.” he recently told CEN, speaking of the PM2.5 fine particle readings. “I hope that after seeing the pictures people will start to pay attention to and protect our living environment. Data and theories are too abstract, but pictures can give a much more vivid picture.”

His images have gotten a lot of attention, inspiring others to take on similar projects; and that, in the end, is exactly what he wants. He’d like people in every Chinese city to begin taking pictures like this so that the reality of air pollution in China can begin to sink in.

To see more of his images or keep up with Yi, visit his Weibo microblog by clicking here.

(via that’s)

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