THE GREAT EASTERN

THE GREAT EASTERN

BY SCOTT CONARROE

Scott Conarroe (b.1974) is a Canadian photographer based in Zurich. His studies of landscape and the built environment look at the present within a sweep of history.  His recent book By Rail and By Sea describes North American civilization along its rail infrastructure and its coastline perimeter. In 2013 he received a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship to photograph the moveable borders Alps nations devised in response to permafrost melt and watershed drift.
Scott has an MFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and is occasional faculty at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.  He is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery.

synopsis

"The Great Eastern" looks at China against the backdrop of high-speed rail expansion.  Rivalled only by the scope of America’s Interstate Highway System, this massive public works project is designed to bring the far-flung backwaters of the world’s most populist nation into the 21st century.  These photographs are about human-scale lives playing out alongside such grandiose dramas.

author's note
Note: Support from the Canada Council for the Arts and TIME Magazine made "The Great Eastern" possible.