ZACHARIAH NERI United States Photography

A moment captured after the rain.  On an ordinary Shanghai sidewalk, we find the perfect depiction of ‘collage city’, an urban theory wherein grand ideals no longer exist in the design of cities but rather, we create small utopian moments in our urban context and experience them like the layering of collages that form fragmented beauties in unexpected pockets. Here the surprise lies in the contrast between the pristine sky refraction and the decaying sidewalk pavement, much like the urban experience of Shanghai found in its simultaneous juxtaposition of extreme beauty and super ugliness.