Photographer Jiang Sheng's experimental work that featured at the 2016 Three Shadows Photography Award and Exhibition. [Photo provided to China Daily]

He first came to Beijing in 1992, attending photography courses. His residence in suburban Dongcun Village, an artists' compound, enabled him to befriend many avant-garde artists.

His snapshots recording their lives formed the first body of his experimental works that made people from the art community notice him.

Four years later he moved to Liulitun, another village in Beijing, where he worked until it was demolished for urban renovation in 2003. It is now a compound of high-rise buildings.

There, he clicked many photos exploring the city's reconstruction and the influences of the transforming landscape on its residents.

His works－many in black and white, with him and Inri as the models－present a sense of beauty and peace in a changing environment.

"Liulitun was a haven of freedom for me," he says. "If it hadn't been demolished, I would still be living there."

He used to live in a courtyard house isolated from the fast pace of the city.