Pingyao Photo Festival 2008

Chinese Sentiment @ Eyes on China Exhibition

The night before the opening at Diesel Engine Factory

Almost Naked @ Kunst.Licht

The Pingyao International Photography Festival (PIP) started on September 19th. The exhibitions are located in the walled Pingyao old town. The old town looks very authentic with a funny little city outside. The locals are extremely friendly, they offer me some of the best noodles. It is very crowd here and everyone seems to carry a fancy camera with them. It was exciting to look through the endless exhibitions and meeting all the friends from all over the world, people who I knew and people I have linked through various situation.

I have work show in two different location this year. My Shanghai gallery Kunst.Licht has a gallery space in Cotton Factory where the rough constructed hotel-like spaces are temporary converted to galleries. Some of my Almost Naked work are displayed here. In another location – Diesel Engine Factory, one of my favorite exhibition space in Pingyao, was transformed from abandoned factories. There are giant machines still standing in the space, the floor is sandy, the entire interior becomes a very dramatic contrast to the contemporary photography. Four images from my on-going series Chinese Sentiment are showing in a group show titled Eyes on China, curated by Ren Yue, a Chinese photo critic, writer and educator .

It is hard to concentrate on exhibitions in Pingyao. I only had three days, so I was constantly running between exhibitions, touring and gathering (a.k.a. piles of dishes, handmade moon-cake and local beer). I believe I only visited a small portion of the festival so far but had quite a few great moments of discovering some of my favorite photographers among this craziness. Most international photographers are showing at the Warehouse area which I did not have enough time to go.

Update: The Pingyao Photo Festival committee anounced today that I am one of the winners of the Excellent International Photographer Award (评委推荐奖).

Almost Naked Exhibition

My solo exhibition Almost Naked had opened at Kunst Licht Gallery in Shanghai on September 13, 2008. Twenty images from the series are on display as well as a slide show of complete series. Special thanks to Sven, Lin Yun and Sabrine’s hard work to make it happen. The gallery is located in a French Concession old house, I especially liked the poster of Yemi and James peeping from the street front windows. Attached is some installation of the exhibition.

I am now at the city of Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi Province in central China, well known for its mining business. It is about one hour and a half from Pingyao where the photo festival will be.