Liu Zhou,1997 [China.org.cn]

Photographer:

Jiang Jianxiong was born in 1951 in Liu Zhou City, Guangxi Province. He graduated as a railway transportation major and began to learn photography in 1985. Jiang focused on black-and-white documentary photography, with themes of motorcycles, migrant railway workers, houses on stilts, etc. His work "Motorcycles in Liu Zhou City" was exhibited at the Guilin International Photography Festival in 2005. In 2001, Jiang was awarded "outstanding member" by China Photographers Association. Jiang is now documenting a village of the Miao minority group and plans to finish it in three years.

 

Jiang Jianxiong's "Motorcycles in Liu Zhou City" shows a unique scene in a small city in southern China. Countless motorcycles roaring on the streets symbolize the dramatic change of a group of people who suddenly became rich after years of living in poverty. It reflects the transition period from bicycle time to automobile era. Different from photographer Wang Wenlan's poetic and casual "Kingdom of Bicycles," Jiang expresses a complicated emotional mixture of cynicism, embarrassment and deep concern. (Curator: Liu Shuyong)