Chris Yan's photo series about a Chinese New Year festival is a masterclass in using color and framing to evoke meaning

Shehuo is ancient. For thousands of years, it's been the Lunar New Year celebration in rural Northwest China: performance, costume, ritual and community all tangled together. But it's dying. Urbanization empties villages. Young people leave for cities and don't come back. The elaborate traditions—the training, the masks, the shared knowledge—slowly fade into silence. Chris Yan began photographing Shehuo festivals with the understanding that once it's gone, a visual record is all that remains.

Chris Yan's photo series about a Chinese New Year festival is a masterclass in using color and framing to evoke meaning. Shehuo is ancient. For thousands of years, it's been the Lunar New Year celebration in rural Northwest China: performance, costume, ritual and community all tangled together. But it's dying. Urbanization empties villages. Young people leave for cities and don't come back. The elaborate traditions—the training, the masks, the shared knowledge—slowly fade into silence. Chris Yan began photographing Shehuo festivals with the understanding that once it's gone, a visual record is all that remains. But rather than approaching it as straightforward documentary, he brought something else to it: the technical discipline of someone who spent years in advertising. That background shows up in every frame, and it's what makes these...