Where is home
Photographer Hui Zhang presents a very personal body of work rooted in her experiences of growing up as a ‘left-behind child’ in suburban Beijing. Shaped by family separation and social inequality, her images revisit the people and places of her upbringing, revealing a quiet sense of longing, memory and calls into question: How do we define ‘home’?
Photography and Text Hui Zhang
Witnessing the irreparable rift between my parents during my childhood left me with a deep and lingering sense of disconnection. Growing up as a ‘left-behind child’ in the city, I learned early on how to say goodbye to my family. Beijing is a city with a serious imbalance in the distribution of resources, and growing up in the suburbs of Beijing, I feel this even more strongly.
In Where Is Home, I photograph the places where I grew up, my family and friends, and recreate the knotted scars of memory. My work Where Is Home was nurtured through the passage of time, reflecting the intertwined love and pain in familial relationships, the confusion and struggles of self-growth, and the divide between urban and rural development. Where is Home also speaks to the ties that bind not only within families, but across broader human relationships.
This work poses the question: How do we define home? Where do we locate a sense of belonging?
“Growing up as a ‘left-behind child’ in the city, I learned early on how to say goodbye to my family.”
“How do we define home? Where do we locate a sense of belonging?”
About Hui
Hui Zhang (b. 1999, Beijing) is a photographer and visual artist based in Shanghai. She focuses on how genders are constructed and articulated within familial and social frameworks shaped by patriarchal structures. Her work examines the complex dynamics and tensions of family relationships and explores the construction of intimacy and power. Working primarily with photography and collage. Her practice moves between personal memory and collective experience, revealing the social tensions reflected in private narratives.
To see more of her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram
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