China is kinetic. Frenetic. A constant barrage of dutiful chaos a billion souls strong. It’s a place where grandma and grandpa still don the blue Mao suits, while their upwardly mobile offspring drive late model Porsche SUVs. Today, the Western world is fixated on China’s economic growth and mixed market economy, but we rarely see or hear about the Chinese people and their daily life.

There’s a restlessness to Rian Dundon that defines much of his work. Sitting over coffee, the 31-year-old photographer checks his phone, then his watch. He looks past the window, capturing mental images of the world outside. Then he returns. It’s that same nervous energy -- a sort of daring uncertainty - that animates the subjects of his forthcoming book on the Chinese city of Changsha, a one-time stronghold for Mao Zedong’s incipient Communist Party. 

Over the years I would take many walks and bike rides through Laurel Hill Cemetery. But it wasn't until a few years ago that I started taking pictures there. I'd recently begun learning about the history of the place and felt a need to document it, to try and capture the essence of the ancient pockmarked stone – and the mostly unnamed craftsmen who carved it – in a way that was authentic and unadulterated.

Street Portraits (2008-2011) by photographer and writer Christopher Moraff.