ZHANG ZHIPENG

In a public park, I photographed portraits of people from different parts of the world. Some had walked thirty minutes from their neighborhood, while others had spent a year traveling across the globe before arriving at this same place.
Alongside each portrait, I invited participants to handwrite their home address, the time it had taken them to reach the park, their occupation, and their name. These handwritten records become physical traces of their journeys, while the photographs preserve a fleeting moment of their presence.
Each person arrives carrying a different distance, duration, language, and life experience. The park becomes a point where countless journeys intersect—a temporary space shared by people whose paths would otherwise never cross.
The project asks what it means to travel today. Is a journey defined by physical distance and unfamiliar destinations, or by a temporary departure from the routines and identities of everyday life?
In an increasingly globalized world, where mobility has become both more accessible and more unequal, this work reflects on how the meaning of travel continues to shift, and how these movements shape the ways individuals experience themselves and encounter others.