Shangri-La is a series of photographs made in Yunnan China in 2004-05. The work is a collaboration between artists Patty Chang and David Kelley. James Hilton's 1933 novel Lost Horizon is the modern origin of concept of Shangri-La as paradise on earth. In the genre of colonial-era adventure narratives, his representation of Shangri-La became ubiquitous after Frank Capra made the film Lost Horizon in 1937.

Such imaginaries of the far-east came full-circle in 2003 when the Chinese government renamed Zhongdian, a small Tibetan town in Yunnan, Shangri-La. Since then Shangri-La County has become a popular tourist destination, showcasing Tibetan communities and their cultural sites.

The photography project foregrounds the constructiveness of the site as well as the concept of "Shangri-La" through re-presenting popular cultural icons in collaboration with local artisans and craftspeople. The photographs draw upon the iconography of highly-produced costume weddings and exoticized images of Tibetan stupas, sacred mountains and monasteries.

Shangri-La
25 color photographs
dimensions variable
David Kelley and Patty Chang
©2005

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