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Touching a continent: 2) Flashes from cities

Urban landscapes, panoramas and glimpses

Getting used to seeing the world from extraordinary heights from an early age. Shanghai (China), 11 August 2025.

Recovering a few images from the cities of a continent as vast as China, passing by in the hasty, low flight of a comet that grazes the Earth before returning to deep space: this is the theme of the collection I present here, the second chapter of my all too rapid journey through those lands.

Representing the urban landscape, cities, streets and squares might seem simple, a mere exercise in reproducing famous places and monuments.

Night-time: double shot of the dazzling city. Shanghai (China), 11 August 2025.

Instead, it is often a matter of stereotypical visions already present in our minds as memories of other people‘s images of the same place, seasoned with the typically Western hubris of those who believe they understand everything and know everything after just one superficial glance.

And this is, in fact, in most cases the almost inevitable result of a hurried sightseeing tour: trinkets, souvenirs, photographic fridge magnets.

Night shot: large shop, small buyer. Shanghai (China), 11 August 2025.

For my part, I have carefully avoided monuments and well-known places, and if I have used some images belonging to our collective imagination, I hope that their nature as conscious references shines through. I preferred to put together scattered and somewhat incoherent images, seen a little sideways, fleeting impressions of a flight that was too fast.

Street in the rain. Yangshuo (China), 14 August 2025.
Ancient walls with street vendor. Xian (China), 18 August 2025.
Apartment buildings at sunset. Xian (China), 18 August 2025.
Night scene: the nightlife boulevard. Xian (China), 18 August 2025.
Wet cyclist heading towards Tiananmen Square. Beijing (China), 21 August 2025.
Metropolis, just as you would expect. Beijing (China), 22 August 2025.
Alleyway, just as you would expect. Beijing (China), 22 August 2025.

What photography was like before social media took over.

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Pietro Coppa

Nato e vissuto a Roma, fotografo per antica passione.

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