At Houhai Lake in Beijing, bathers become black silhouettes against the amber hues of the setting sun. This photograph is part of my project “Poetic and Political Cities”, an artistic exploration of aesthetics in the heart of urban chaos—concrete jungles, polluted skies, overcrowded, overstimulated, fast-moving spaces. The project is a personal crusade to uncover unexpected poetry and rediscover humanity within the environments we have built, often inhospitable and disconnected from nature. By capturing fleeting moments where public spaces, architecture, and everyday life intersect, I aim to reveal the social, cultural, and political layers embedded in cities around the world. “Poetic and Political Cities” invites viewers to experience both familiar and foreign urban landscapes through an artistic lens that is simultaneously poetic, critical, and deeply human.