Location: Baiyu, Sichuan
Medium: ILFORD Multigrade FB Classic fiber-based paper
Technique: Hand-printed gelatin silver print
Edition: 1/12
Framing: Solid wood frame with acid-free mat
Signature: Signed by the artist (on verso)
This work was photographed in Baiyu, Sichuan. In heavy snowfall, several Tibetan Buddhist nuns remain outside a tent chapel: some sit on the ground, while others stand quietly listening, their bodies nearly merging with the white expanse of snow and canvas. The large area of empty space lowers the emotional temperature of the image while intensifying the palpable sense of cold, silence, and waiting. In the foreground, snow-covered shoes echo the figures and contribute to an almost suspended visual order. Rather than dramatizing hardship, the photograph uses an austere composition to reveal, with quiet force, the endurance, daily life, and spiritual devotion of these women practitioners.
Zhou Wei, born in 1969, is a freelance photographer based in Changzhou, Jiangsu. Since 2002, he has focused on long-term documentary projects concerning contemporary Chinese society, with particular attention to how history, culture, and belief are reflected in everyday life among different ethnic communities. His major projects include Numunayi, JOMO, and A Gaze into Central China. His works have been exhibited and awarded in China and abroad.