Pietro Ansaldi

Urban Connection, Shenzhen, 2023

As an Italian photographer based in China, I often find myself immersed in the ever-shifting rhythms of its cities. Shenzhen, in particular, left a deep impression on me — a place where vertical growth seems endless and where the built environment dominates every horizon.

This photograph was taken from the 20th floor of my service apartment, overlooking Shenzhen Bay. From that height, the city stretches in every direction, its towers like monuments to human ambition. I felt both part of this massive organism and strangely lost within it.

There’s a powerful contradiction in this view: the comfort of being surrounded, protected, enveloped — but also the quiet anxiety of being swallowed, of disappearing into a concrete grid that never ends. The architecture offers order, scale, even beauty — but it also reflects how urban life can blur our sense of individuality.

This image captures that moment of stillness and reflection, standing between connection and isolation, admiration and unease.