And then, sometimes an image is not worth a thousand words. These duo-tones are too dark and too vague to be meaningful visual information. Without the text descriptions, they are photographic cartoon graffiti -- at best...

China's story along these lines needs to be revealed to us but this was not the best approach. This seems like a political statement rather than an attempt to help the reader understand the issues described or suggested in the text...

Or is this display meant to be art? If so, I would have found it more intriguing without the extended descriptions...

China is not what it was 80 or 100 years ago and so it is a mistake to portray it in a dark photoshopped faux image style from that time. The photographer should have brought us clarity so that we would not need the descriptions to find value in the presentation...

I think Mr Mulligan put this brilliantly.

Photographs simply do not look like this these days. Believe it or not, there exists contemporary equipment capable of producing images that have no vignette.

If a photographer is going to use antique equipment, or faux antique processes, it should at the very least be due to some sort of relevant meaning. But these photos are of contemporary China. Because of this, any shred of meaning in the "vintage" aesthetic is completely eliminated.

All art should have relevant meaning within. And if it is photojournalism, then relevance and meaning should be of the utmost importance.

Photography's made great advances since the 1800s. China has made more. This essay reflects very few of these advances.

WOW!! It seems everyone commenting seems to know for sure that the photographer created these photos in photoshop. They still make "old-fashioned film". And for all we know the "dark vintage technique" may have been created in a "darkroom". I don't know, but I would actually love to find out from the photographer.

I wish this had more information (a background story) about the essay not just the captions. Questions I would like the photographer to answer... Why B&W? Is it film or digital? Did you have any problems with the Chinese authorities getting access to these places? If so, what were they? What other stories about your travels could you include to tell us.

I, unlike like most of the other posters, really liked the photos. They had a "dream-like" feel. Similar effect when taking photos with a pin-hole camera.

Some were very powerful. I especially LOVED the one everyone hates (the boat and floating WTC island). It is so BIZARRE! I had to really study the photo.

Some were hard to read so small. I would imagine in a larger format you could see the subtletiesof the subject matter in the photos.

Good job.

I agree with Mr. Nisely in that I would like to hear more about the background of this photo essay from the photographer.
And in response to Matthew and Kurk- it is not proven that this photographer photoshopped this essay at all. However if that is in fact how the photos were created, then good for the photographer! Use the tools available to you.
I would then interpret the photos to draw parallels in a very interesting manner... i.e. using new, contemporary methods to reflect a classic style of photography; all the while portraying a centuries old culture in the throes of adopting a newer, more modern way of life.
Art is in the eye of the beholder, and in my opinion no online blogger has the right to trash someone else's work with their faux-intellectual elitism. Seek out and praise the good instead of trying to knock down someone else's accomplishments bit by bit.

As a China expat for years the photo stylism conveys what I have often strongly sensed about the new China--a feeling that it is all somehow artificial, or that the most important dimension supporting the superficiality is missing.

Delano shoots with Leica M2 rangefinders (dating from the late 1950s) mounted with 35mm lenses, and Kodak T-Max black and white film. He prints his images himself in a darkroom. It is an approach that works for him to achieve the aesthetic he is looking for. I believe that it works in most cases and that his images are unique and compelling. This particular set is not as strong as some that I've seen in the past, but that is probably due, in part, to the relatively bad quality of presentation on the website.