People After Work下班的人

People After Work was photographed on the platform of a metro station in Guangzhou. I waited for each train to arrive and photographed the brief moment when its doors opened. For several seconds, the interior of the carriage became visible: some passengers looked at their phones, some rested with their eyes closed, some stared into the distance, while others stood silently among the crowd. The doors then closed, the train moved on, and the faces disappeared from view.

Photographed from a relatively fixed position, the open carriages were later stitched together into a single elongated image. The unfolded train becomes a continuous cross-section of the city, revealing the repeated gestures, postures, and expressions of people travelling home after work. They stand close to one another while remaining largely unknown to each other. They have left the workplace, yet are still contained within the commuting system, suspended before returning fully to their private lives.

Here, the metro functions as both a means of transportation and a transitional space between labour and everyday life. Fatigue, waiting, and momentary detachment are compressed into the few seconds between the opening and closing of the doors. After completing the photographs, I would take the same metro line home. My own experience as a commuter therefore remains embedded within the work.

《下班的人》拍摄于广州地铁站。我站在站台上，等待列车进站。车门打开的几秒钟里，车厢内部短暂地显露出来：有人低头看手机，有人闭目休息，有人望向远处，也有人沉默地站在人群之间。随后车门关闭，列车继续驶向下一站，这些面孔也随之从视线中消失。

我从相对固定的位置拍摄一节节打开的车厢，再将它们拼接为一幅横向延伸的长图。被展开的列车形成一个连续的城市切面，呈现下班途中反复出现的身体、姿态与表情。人们彼此靠得很近，却大多互不相识；他们已经离开工作场所，仍处于通勤系统之中，尚未真正回到私人生活。

地铁在这里既是交通工具，也是一段介于工作与生活之间的过渡空间。疲惫、等待与短暂的失神，被压缩在车门开合的几秒钟里。拍摄结束后，我也会登上同一条线路回家。因此，这组作品既是对下班人群的观察，也包含了我作为通勤者的共同经验。