1/125s

1/125s was photographed in a business district in Guangzhou, where delivery riders move continuously between office buildings, shopping centres, and surrounding streets. Their movement differs from that of ordinary commuters. A commute generally follows a relatively defined route between two points, while a rider’s journey is repeatedly redirected by incoming orders, from one address to the next.

Photography conventionally relies on a fast shutter speed to freeze a moving subject. For this series, I chose not to match the riders’ speed. Instead, I photographed them at 1/125 of a second, the shutter speed I use most frequently in my everyday practice. It became a fixed measure of observation: the camera setting remained constant, while each rider’s visibility was determined by their speed, distance, and direction as they passed through the frame.

I arranged the photographed figures in a sequence progressing from sharpness to blur, then combined them into a single elongated image. At the beginning, bodies, uniforms, and vehicles remain identifiable. As the image unfolds, the riders gradually lose their contours, eventually appearing as streaks, shadows, and fragments of colour moving through the city. Their appearances are only partially preserved, while the image records the visual trace that speed leaves upon the body.

Within different urban systems, the rider assumes different forms. To the customer, he is a period of waiting that is expected to grow shorter. To the platform, he is a moving data point on a map. To the road, he is a body repeatedly passing through gaps in traffic and space. Through the transition from clarity to disappearance, 1/125s examines how an individual body is compressed into speed by time pressure, algorithmic coordination, and the circulation of the city.