French photographer's exhibit to open in Beijing

An exhibition by French photographer Pierre-Jean de San Bartolome will open on June 17 at the Yuan Art Museum in Beijing's Chaoyang district.

For the exhibition, titled Summer Billiards, San Bartolome took photos of people playing the game in Beijing, with their daily lives as the backdrop.

San Bartolome, who is also a stage director, artistic manager and writer, knows China well, having spent a large part of the past two decades here. He was the cultural attache at the French embassy in Beijing from 2003 to 2008.

"From the very first image you're struck by the mix of naturalness of those in the photos and the extreme sophistication in the symbolic objects and the way the photos are set," said Alain Sayag, a former curator of photography at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

Summer Billiards comprises 14 photos.

"It's just like a movie," San Bartolome said. "The photographs talk about people and stories from different ages and spaces at the same time."

The curator of the exhibition, Zhu Jiong, associate professor of the Photographic Institute of the Beijing Film Academy, said the photos are a combination of reality and dream.

"In each photo you can read the reality about Chinese people, and you can let your imagination fly regarding the history and culture."

The exhibition will go on until July 8.