Book gives China’s rural photographers their due

Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn

Over the last half century, rural photographers have been taking pictures of peasants and people in rural Chinese towns and villages. Despite this work, these photographers have long been ignored, going unrecognized by official photography institutes.

That changed this year, thanks to Wang Yong’s newly published book, Photographer coming to Village, an oral history of rural photographers.

The 38-year-old Wang spent three years (2011 to 2014) interviewing photographers in small towns at the juncture of central China’s four eastern provinces: Henan, Shandong, Anhui and Jiangsu.

In his book, their faces become clear to us, showing them to be humble, brave and reserved. Through their photography, their sorrows and triumphs become concrete.

Their range of education is wide. Some are self-taught or learned from family, some learned photography from Western missionaries, others from Japanese businessmen.

Zhao Xiuting, 60, a photographer in Minquan, Henan province, recalls that his father learned photography at a Japanese photo studio. He began studying there around 1930 at the age of 12 and "six years later, he opened his own studio".