The first annual exhibition of the HUAN_LAND photography community (环行地, HUAN meaning “circle, ring”), entitled HUAN_LANDERS (People Walking Along the Ring), was held from April 18 to June 2, 2025, at the Shanghai Mass Art Center (SMAC). The exhibition traces the genesis and evolution of this photography community and features 392 works by over 200 members.
HUAN_LAND was founded by 10kbro (一万兄), a photo editor born in the 1980s. It brings together a global community of Chinese creators, the majority of whom are passionate amateurs, not professionals. In 2000, 10kbro moved to Shanghai with his parents. After leaving school, he worked various odd jobs. In 2009, while working in a factory assembling laptops, he decided to quit everything to devote himself to photography. He began publishing his own photos and organizing others on the TuChong platform. From 2012 to 2021, he was the photo editor for LOFTER and Onetake, two of the best online photography communities in China at the time.
In 2013, he created the WeChat account Le téléphone des autres (The Phone of Others). At a time when mobile photography was emerging but remained marginalized, this platform became a space for reflection on its uses and controversies. 10kbro regularly selects photos from members’ posts and shares them on WeChat Moments, through an Editor’s Recommendations section. Thanks to his unique perspective and editorial experience, he gradually drew a coherent aesthetic line in the abundance of individual creations, forging a concise and unique visual language.
After several years of hiatus due to the vagaries of life, the project was reborn in 2021 under the name HUAN_LANDERS (环行的人, people who walk along the ring), a reference to a phrase by the Tang Dynasty writer Li Hua: “Walking along the ring, without beginning or end.” This image illustrates 10kbro’s perseverance in his publishing work. He emphasizes the notion of circulation rather than circularity: for the omnipresent rings in life remind us that life is not a static circle, it moves forward, always in motion.
The first work in the exhibition, The Baron in the Trees, depicts 10kbro standing on a branch, smiling as he looks down. It echoes Italo Calvino’s novel of the same name, which tells the story of a young 18th-century aristocrat who climbs trees to escape family authority and then refuses to ever come back down. It is a metaphor for the quest for freedom and independence, but also for a reinvented connection to the world. Similarly, 10kbro maintains a relationship with the world that is both distant and deeply rooted.
To say that his relationship with photography is akin to a kind of “devotion” would undoubtedly be excessive; to say that it is “simple” would also be too reductive. Yet, HUAN_LAND is constructed precisely from ordinary but self-sufficient images, which have no need for justification or particular symbolism to fully exist.
A striking installation in the exhibition is a mirror that invites visitors to take a self-portrait. Behind this mirror stands a wall covered with self-portraits of over 200 members of the community, all facing their camera. Their reflections, combined with those of the audience, create a symbolic encounter.
10kbro prefers to refer to it as a camera-in-hand portrait (持机照), rather than a selfie. In HUAN_LAND, the self-portrait is no longer about portraying a single “self,” but rather about establishing a relationship between the self, the camera, and its reflection. It is also a gesture of connection between the individual and their community.
Since 2023, HUAN_LAND has brought together more than 4,000 members on the discussion platform ZhiShiXingQiu (Planet Knowledge), with over 93,000 posts. Very few are professional photographers, but their love of photography unites them. They call themselves “people of the land (地里的人).” 10kbro, on the other hand, has been cultivating this land day after day for over a decade, and each member is a sower. Museum curator Lu Yinlan, herself a member of the community, says, “We hope the public will see not only images, but also the people behind them.” It is these stories, these fragments of lives, that give flesh and soul to the exhibition space.
Photographer Liyue (里约), born in the 1990s, uses photography to combat depression. For five years, she regularly traveled to southern Xinjiang, where she documented the daily lives of the locals, building bonds with them that were as deep as family. Duanpian (短篇), an intensive care nurse, took photographs to lighten the emotional burden of his daily life, filled with life and death. Every moment captured by his lens is imbued with a tender attention to life and the world. Du (度), for his part, photographed passengers on the bus on their way to work. This project, which he pursued for more than ten years, ended on the day of his retirement.
In HUAN_LAND, all it takes is one reason to raise your camera, and no one has to justify themselves. Just press the shutter, and perhaps, through the eyes of others, through their images, we will be able to see ourselves, discover ourselves, understand ourselves. In an era where images are consumed at breakneck speed, and where creation is dictated by algorithms, this community acts like a sundial: in a world set to the second, it measures time with the slowness of shadow and light. This exhibition tells the story of 10kbro, the story of HUAN_LAND, and the story of each person who walks along the ring.
Deng Qiwen
HUAN_LANDERS
HUAN_LAND Photography Community Annual Exhibition
April 18 to June 2, 2025
Shanghai Mass Art Center (SMAC)
125 Guyi Rd, Xuhui District, Shanghai, China
Exhibition open daily, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/lwSyt0GoeC_o8waKqClHoA
