In rural northern China, the kang is the heart of the home. The two meter wide brick platforms, heated beneath by a coal, wood, straw, or corn cob fire, are hearth, family bed, and living room all rolled into one. Especially during the winter when fields are frozen and work can be scarce, families often spend the better part of the day on the kang, chatting, dining, and playing, before returning to sleep.
The photos in this series, shot in March and April of 2015 in Gansu province, use natural light to turn the kang into a kind of studio set for family portraits.
I have paired the portraits with details of the families’ homes; elaborate embroidery, posters of tropical resorts, carefully tied bundles of wood give us glimpses of the skills and aspirations of the homeowners. Together, they form a patchwork of a way of life that—as more and more Chinese relocate from traditional housing into newly built housing—is quickly vanishing.
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