In the fall of 2007, I spent a month on a residency at Lijiang Studio in Yunnan Province. I observed the seasons change from fall to winter, and every day photographed an old Naxi man who lived next door. His name was Lao He, and because he often sat or stood watch in the nearby apple fields, I came to think of him as an arbiter of time. While photographing him every day, I also made images of the land surrounding him—the dying brush, birds that were killed by local children, and other things I found as evidence of the passage of time.