Traveling throughout old and new China, Stephen Wilkes has expertly portrayed a nation amidst rapid and vast transformation. Focusing on both rural and industrial settings–and the increasing number of areas where the two collide–the artist draws our attention to a changing way of life. The large, spectacular imagery speaks of not only a new era in China, but also a shift in global economics already felt in the United States.

Wilkes, however, is always sure to include a human element in his photographs. Conscious of the individual lives affected by such a riptide of industrialization, the artist hopes to remind his audience of the real implications of such drastic economic and social shifts.