Founding ceremony of China, Oct 1, 1949 [China.org.cn]

Photographer:

Hou Bo was born in 1924. She is honorary chairperson of China Women's Photographers Association and is senior photograph reporter at Xinhua News Agency. She started to learn photography in Yan'an in the 1940s and worked as a photographer for the central government from 1949 to 1961. She took numerous pictures for Mao Zedong and other top leaders. According to incomplete statistics, about 400 pictures published of Mao were taken by Hou. 

 

In this series of photos, Hou Bo, personal photographer of the late Chairman Mao Zedong, keeps a record of many historic events and moments. The series is divided into two major parts. One part is the magnificent and ritual-like portraits of top Chinese officials. These pictures have been widely printed and disseminated so that they can fully reveal the leaders' charm. They have now become a classic form for Chinese portrait photography. The second part is the documentation of the leaders' personal lives, which was rarely seen by the public in the past. These precious photos break the sanctification and imagination of government officials, offering clues for understanding how history unfolded. (Curator: Liu Shuyong)