Seen/Unseen focuses on migrant children in Beijing who temporarily migrate from China's less developed regions to urban centers with their parents, facing displacement and alienation. In 2014, I collaborated with a group of these children to create portraits that shed light on their resilience and the challenges they endured. More than a decade later, in 2025, I revisited the project, photographing the same individuals—now adults—who have since forged new paths in cities across China. This photograph traces how Cong Shuwen’s life journey unfolds alongside the nation’s rapid transformation.
Tianqiutao Chen is an artist and educator working in China and the United States. Chen's work has been exhibited widely, including at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Modern Art Oxford, National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Minsheng Art Museum, Taipei International Photo Festival, and Copenhagen Photo Festival, among others. His work was selected for the 2022 Critical Mass Top 50 and made the Winners Shortlist for the Projects & Portfolios Category of the 2025 URBAN Photo Awards. His photobook won the 2017 Lucie Photo Book Prize for the Independent Publishing Category.