In Murals, British photographer Chris Rhodes turns his lens on Shanghai—not to define it, but to inhabit it. Renowned for his ability to capture presence over narrative, Rhodes brings his signature sensitivity to a city often hurriedly consumed in images.

Shot over an immersive stay, the series moves through Shanghai with no shot list or spectacle. Instead, Murals composes a quiet portrait of the city through its unnoticed details: textures of peeling walls, the rhythm of light across stairwells, a corridor’s breath of air. In Rhodes’ photographs, surfaces speak and the ordinary takes on sculptural depth.

As writer Céline Bodin notes in the foreword:
“Perhaps even a face will remain, logged into our mind, a splash of paint will summon a dormant memory, a perfect symmetry of elements will soothe our senses and return harmony to an overactive inner world.”

A poetic study of modern Shanghai seen through the eyes of a quiet observer, Murals is at once a riddle for the new arrival and a love letter for those who have lived the city from within.