The Beaugeste Gallery in Shanghai is exhibiting, for the first time in China, the photographs of Bruno Barbey (b. 1941 in Morocco) taken between 1973 and 1980. Founded in 2007 by the critic and curator Jean Loh, the Beaugeste Gallery occupies the fifth floor of a building in the Tianzifang neighborhood, famous for its 1930s architecture, a remnant of the former French Concession in Shanghai. For any photography fan, the Beaugeste Gallery, although only a few square meters wide, is like an Ali Baba’s cave, with treasures ranging from unique prints by famous and emerging photographers to rare catalogs not on the market.
The photographs from the series China in Kodachrome offer a voyage of forty years into China’s past. We witness the country recovering from the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, plastered over with gigantic banners and garish propaganda posters extolling the power of Chinese workers, and the strong contrasts between the city and the country as Chinese society wakes up to a new way of life. These photographs remind the viewer that hardly anyone believed the country could come so far and so quickly, that the “Chinese Miracle” could be more than a dream.
Marine Cabos
Read the full text of this article on the French version of Le Journal.
China in Kodachrome
Bruno Barbey
Until Februray 10th, 2013
Beaugeste Gallery
Lane 210 Taikang road, building 5, studio 519
Shanghai, 200025
China
