Granite peaks and the Stone Monkey rock formation on Yellow Mountain in Anhui Province

This photograph, made in 1986 on Yellow Mountain (Huangshan) in Anhui Province, shows the well-known Stone Monkey rock formation perched high above the surrounding granite peaks. I had stayed overnight at the mountaintop hostel and got up at 4:00 a.m. to reach this vantage point before first light. At 5:30 a.m., as the sun broke low over the horizon, a rare and extraordinary light swept across the mountain—soft, directional, and briefly perfect. How often does light reveal itself so precisely, and only for a moment? In just a few minutes, that subtle glow intensified, becoming too bright to hold the delicate tones of the scene. I had time to expose only three plates, and the one you see here was the strongest.

This fleeting moment revealed the dramatic geology, atmosphere, and spatial depth that define Huangshan and has drawn poets, painters, and travelers for centuries. The interplay of early morning light and textured granite gives this image its fine-art structure and reflects my ongoing effort to record China’s landscapes during a period of profound transition.