When people speak about Daliangshan, the conversation can quickly become about scarcity. My memories of the families I met there are much more personal: children running between homes, grandparents watching from doorways, meals shared around a fire, and conversations that slowly turned strangers into friends.
I still remember spending a day with a family and becoming close with a girl near my age. We talked about school and discovered interests we shared. By the end of the day, I no longer felt that I was visiting strangers. That relationship changed the way I later approached photographing families. I became less interested in what looked different and more attentive to the warmth, humor, affection, and sense of home already present in everyday life.
