Paradise

• Prize
  Honorable Mention
• Photographer
  Haishan Chen, China
• Date of Photograph
  April/May 2026

This set of photos was taken in various communities in Guangzhou. These elephant-shaped slides were common playground facilities in Chinese residential areas in the 1950s, modeled after the Soviet model. They are collective memories of our childhood. As time goes by, old residential areas and elephant slides are demolished due to the rapid pace of infrastructure development. Whenever I occasionally encounter these remaining elephant slides, I feel like I am in a different time and space. I feel lost, and the current era feels wild, yet I have forgotten the sunshine and atmosphere of that era.