永定河故名无定河,因在历史上曾发生过多次水灾,故得此名。“可怜无定河边骨,犹是深闺梦里人。”这是晚唐诗人陈陶《陇西行》中非常知名的两句。永定河的河龄已有300万岁的年纪,故被称为北京的母亲河。它位于北京的西部,跨越了海淀(西)、石景山、丰台等区,虽然它并没有流经北京的心脏,但它和每一个在北京西边儿长大的孩子的童年都息息相关。
2009年,北京市政府决心整治已断流30年的永定河,目标一个是使这条因人类过度使用而断流的河流重新有水,同时将在河道内外进行大规模整治 ,将永定河修筑成一条人工景观河。2011年,我开始记录这条河流的改造过程。
让我来讲拍摄其中一张照片的体验吧:那张照片拍摄于京港高速大桥下方的河道上,当时工人们正集体在河床上午休。我被一座桥柱上大篇幅的文字吸引,由于书写者使用了大量的方言,且夹杂很多错误书写,导致非常难以阅读。然而可以确定的是,书写者是在坎坷的遭遇后写下这些文字,字里行间渗透出深切的怨恨与苦楚。一个工人醒来后,我问他:“请问你知道桥柱上这些字的来历吗?” 工人说:“不知道,只知道已经在这儿好久了。”我又问:“那能告诉我这块的河床什么时候会被人工填水吗?” 工人和我说:“明天。”
于是我拍下了这张照片。两周后,当我再次来到这一河段时,发现照片上的一切都已经被淹没在水下,这些文字以及来自这未知书写者的怨恨,终有一天会被河水冲淡直至消逝…… 我远远的站在河边,看着桥柱高处露出的仅剩的三两行字,又按下了一次快门。
Yong Ding River (it means ‘the river of permanency’ in Chinese) flows through half of Beijing, it was once called Wu Ding River (Chinese meaning ‘the river of uncertainty’) because of the numerous floods happened in history. The age of the river is more than 3 million years, hense it’s been called the mother river of Beijing. The river is not a widely considered ‘beautiful’, however it is a very special river since it witnesses all the changes happened in the history of Beijing.
In 2009, the council of Beijing has decided to reconstruct Yong Ding River that has been exhausted for almost 30 years, the aim is to bring the river back to life, and to change it into the largest man-made river park in Beijing.
So I started to take photographs along the river before it’s fully constructed. By documenting the residents and changing landscapes along the river, I was trying to reflect the particularity of the current stage in the history of China. Slowly I realize I’m not only documenting the now. It is more like a journey through two parallel times – the now and a mysterious past.