First award of the Xishuangbanna’s festival
Buddha disappearing the 3 Gorges dam
The largest dam in the world, the Three Gorges Dam, with a 1.8 million watts power station generating electricity has been built. The discussions about the dam, no matter wether positive or negative, have never stopped in the last 20 years.
Xiao Xuanan, who is a photographer living close to the Yangtze River, tries to find the way to document the change after the dam had been built. From 2005 to 2006, he focused on the Buddha statues and murals in Xia Yan Temple, Chongqing. When the Dam started to store water from 135m to 156m, the Buddha s were flooded under water.
Nowadays, the water lever has been kept at 175m, the traditional Buddha statues disappeared forever. His pictures are the witnesses of this great loss.
Xiao Xuanan
Three Gorges Dam University visiting professor
Exhibitions:
1986 Shanghai 1st international exhibition
2011 Lianzhou photo festival
2012 Dali international Exhibitions
Award
2011 Lianzhou photo festival “jury special award”
2012 Dali Photo Festival Asian Pioneer Photographer Award, “Top 10” photographer.
