A six-year-old boy of the Uygur ethnic group was confirmed on Wednesday by the Shanghai office of the Guinness Book of World Records as the world youngest photographer to have a photo exhibition.
The boy, Ahtamujan, held a photo exhibition in his kindergarten in Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region this May, showing 168 colored, black and white, and digital pictures.
“Most of the pictures were taken by an auto camera, which was a gift given by my dad on my birthday party when I turned three,” said the shy boy.
Ahtamujan’s first published picture was taken three months after he got the camera. Since then nearly 40 photographs have been published in various newspapers and magazines.
His news photos include one taken when a United Nations official gave medicine for the treatment of osteomyelitis to babies in the kindergarten in 1998.
Ahtamujan’s father, a press photographer in Xinjiang, hopes to buy a more advanced camera for his son to improve his talents.
(People’s Daily 11/30/2000)