Ferit Kuyas has been working on for some time on the city of Chongqing in China. The city is located in Southwest China’s region of Sichuan and was the capital of China during World War II. The municipality is populated by approximately 32 million people and is a Chinese mega-metropolis. Chongqing is the largest agglomeration in the world. What is taking place there resembles the ongoings of Manhattan in the 1920's --when Manhattan was built.

The ever present haze in Chongqing, the Chinese “City of Fog,” is not the product of fragrant rivers, but of the poisonous industrial smog that constantly darkens the sky. This is the Coketown of the early 21st century. According to the World Bank, 16 of the planet's 20 dirtiest cities are in China, and Chongqing's choking atmosphere makes it one of the most polluted.

Chongqing is trying to clean up, but this, along with the growing inequality, is a low priority compared to economic growth. The environment needs protecting, but the regional government fears the social consequences. Economic growth requires environmental damage, and Chongqing is quite ready to pay that price.

Kuyas' project is “City of Ambition", which is a series of colour photographs from Chongqing, often taken from the outskirts of Chongqing, where the city can’t really be seen, but rather sensed.

Big views big camera. We don't see this kind of work in Australia. The images indicate that China is the economic engine room of the 21st century.