Print Date: 2023
Location: Larung Valley, Sichuan
Camera Format: Large-format camera with Ilford sheet film
Medium: Gelatin silver print on chloride silver paper base
Edition: 9/20 + 2 AP
Framing: Museum-grade acid-free mounting, Tru Vue anti-reflective glass, USA, custom dark hardwood frame
Signature: Signed by the artist
Larung Valley compresses layered wooden dwellings and paths into a single elevated view, creating a settlement landscape that spreads across the frame almost without interruption. The dense repetition of houses, windows, and structural details gives the inhabited space a strong sense of order and complexity within the black-and-white tonality of silver gelatin printing, allowing the specific site to become a visual structure marked by wholeness and rhythm.
Zhang Yibin is Associate Professor at the School of Art and Design, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University, and Deputy Director and Secretary-General of the Classical Photography Committee of the Zhejiang Photographers Association. He began studying traditional black-and-white silver gelatin photography in 1995, and since 2004 has devoted himself to its practice, teaching, and promotion, establishing his own traditional photography studio in Hangzhou while actively fostering international exchange, education, and exhibition projects in the field. His work focuses on the exploration of photography's intrinsic language, with an emphasis on the tonal richness and material qualities of classical silver gelatin practice.