During various journeys along the Yellow River, Zhang Kechun did not become seduced by travel photography or pay tribute to the River that was the Cradle of Chinese Civilization. He has developed a panorama, without ever dramatizing it visually, of one of the biggest rivers in the world, whose basin is on the verge of becoming a desert. He has tried to evoke, through gentle images taken with a large format camera, the magnitude of nature against almost microscopic characters –always lost in the immensity–, before an abandoned head of Buddha –too big for man–, or facing inordinately monumental constructions. With no resort to sensationalism, maintaining an even tonality, he calls our attention to the dramatic contamination of the great river and of the regions it runs through. Over the thousands of miles occupied by this photographic voyage, the human being, in his destructiveness, has practically disappeared.
Zhang was born in 1980 in Sichuan, China, and lives and works in Chengdu. He has taken part in biennials and festivals all over the world, including the Beijing Photo Biennial, the Biennal de Photographie Photoquai in Paris, and the Delhi International Photography Festival. His work has been shown in different cities in Europe, Asia and the USA, and received an award in the National Geographic Picks Global in 2008. He was also a finalist in the Sony World Photography Awards in 2013.
FESTIVAL
GETXOPhoto Photography Festival
From September 3rd to October 4th, 2015
Getxo, Spain
