China’s emergence from decades of Communist “cold storage” is obvious everywhere. The decentralization of China’s Communist Party has significantly diminished its influence on the daily activities of Chinese citizens. The social repression of Mao’s Cultural Revolution is a distant memory. Chinese are “out and about”, traveling freely and every public space is crowded. My greatest challenge was to filter out the massive visual “noise” of these busy urban environments. This series of photographs represents my effort to capture images that separate the individual from the crowd and find the rare moment of quiet among the cacophony of modern Chinese life.
China’s prohibition regarding families having more than one child, established in 1979, has resulted in a huge impact on Chinese families. A generation of Chinese has no sibling. These solitary children have no aunts, uncles or first cousins. Childhood friends substitute for brothers and sisters. Babies are treated like treasured objects.
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Hello Newt,
ReplyDeleteSo refreshing to see a non-candid photo of chinese children. It is great to see the informal pose, great expression of child's face and I like his jacket. As you mentioned a story of isolated children is difficult to narrate visually with people in the background, but the sense of 'isolation within a crowd' is strong.
Good blog posting,
ian