In 1986, on his son’s first birthday, a Chinese father took a simple photo. He didn’t know it would become a 30-year ritual, a visual diary capturing childhood, aging, hope, and the quiet power of love. Year after year, no matter what changed careers, struggles, milestones, heartbreaks they stood side by side and pressed pause on life for one moment.
As the boy rises toward adulthood, the father slowly bends toward old age. Their bodies change, their bond deepens, and the camera records it all: the passing years, the unspoken affection, the circle of life completing itself when the son becomes a father too.
This isn’t just a photo series.
It’s a reminder that time is relentless, parents grow older faster than we think, and the simplest traditions become the most meaningful.
Now follow their journey, year by year and feel time move with them.
1986
The ritual all started in the year 1986. A father decided to take a picture with his son on his first birthday. Little did he know that he would spend the next 26 years taking a similar picture with him.