1/125s1/125s

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.

《1/125秒》拍摄于广州一片写字楼密集的区域。工作日里，大量骑手持续穿行于办公楼、商场与街道之间。他们的移动方式与普通通勤者有所不同：通勤通常有相对明确的起点和终点，而骑手的路线则被不断出现的订单重新规划，从一个地址赶往下一个地址。

摄影通常通过提高快门速度来凝固快速移动的物体。在这组作品中，我放弃追随骑手的速度，将相机固定在自己日常最常使用的1/125秒。这个速度成为一种恒定的观看尺度：相机参数保持不变，骑手在画面中的清晰程度，则由他们经过镜头时的速度、距离和方向共同决定。

我将拍摄到的人物按照从清晰到模糊的顺序排列，并拼接成一幅逐渐消失的长图。画面开始时，骑手的身体、制服和车辆仍然可以被辨认；随着图像向后延伸，人物逐渐失去轮廓，最终只留下快速穿过城市的色块与影子。摄影在这里没有完整保存他们的面貌，却记录了速度在身体上留下的视觉痕迹。

在不同的城市系统中，骑手被转化为不同的形式：对于顾客，他是一段不断缩短的等待时间；对于平台，他是地图上持续移动的数据点；对于道路，他是穿越车流和空间缝隙的身体。《1/125秒》试图通过清晰与模糊之间的变化，呈现个体如何在时间压力、算法调度与城市交通的共同作用下，逐渐被压缩为一种速度。