Zhang Xiao is one of the new talent of the Chinese photography and his best known and famous work is “Coastline” among others, it was awarded at the Prix HSBC Pour La Photographie in 2011.
I had an interview with Xiao last year about “Coastline” and that time we also talked about the relationship between this work and his previous one, “They”, I asked him if there was a sort of continuity.
Eliseo Barbàra: “Like many authors in the past – I am thinking about Berenice Abbott’s Changing New York in 1930s – “Coastline” shows us how your country lanscape is fastly changing . It seems you love to take pictures of the people, so you often observe and analyze them. Even if you are young, how do you feel that the Chinese people are changing? I’m thinking about your series called “They”.
Zhang Xiao: “Yes, but I both like to take pictures of the people and landscape. Because most of the landscape are created by human. The landscape is also a reflection of social issues. There are great changes every day in China since it began opening up 30 years ago. The cities are like big construction sites speeding their construction pace to catch up with the rest of the world. All of this appears particularly oustanding in China’s coastal areas. A multitude of countrymen leave their native place to go there. Urbanization drives continually accelerate growth while people’s spiritual life stay. About “They”, these photos were taken in Chongqing city, Southwest China. I think “They” significance is the same as “Coastline”, only different in its geography”.
Today it’s a good time to talk again to Zhang Xiao. In fact, “They” has become a beautiful hardcover book with 52 images; the entire project has around 100 photographies and with many other films still not developed yet. The book was issued by the independent Beijing-based publisher Jia Za Zhi Press by Yuan Di and Huang Yating last December and now it is available in a 500 signed copies edition. The result of this work is like a successful homage to the absurdity of many aspects of the dailylife in China. Quoting the afterword by Hai Jie, Zhang Xiao intensively describes the theatre of absurdity in real life, just using a simple plastic Holga camera.
EB : But who are they?
I asked Zhang Xiao. The word “they” may suggest a concept of distance between the subjects and the photographer (and through him, the viewer). Then it could mean that “they” are recognizable as a specific group too.
ZX: “I don’t want to make a distance between the subjects and me. Surface refers to them, in fact, myself included. Because “they” is a very broad word in Chinese. And I was one of them.
Zhang Xiao was working as photojournalist in Chongqing when he started taking these images. But he abandoned the specific work of the photojournalist who has to be precise and full-detailed in the scene’s descriptions.
EB: “Why do you not use captions for the images? You don’t describe people and where they are and what they are doing.
ZX: “I think that the text would be weak here. The text can only elaborate on what was happening, or what did not happen. I think that the people in the pictures have gone beyound reality. We need more space for imagination”.
Eliseo Barbàra
MoST Artists
Book
They
Photographs by Zhang Xiao
Jia Za Zhi press
Dec. 2012
China
Limited Editions, 500 copies all signed
Exhibition
They
Photographs by Zhang Xiao
From March 8th to April 5th, 2013
Blindspot Gallery,
24-26A, Aberdeen Street, Central,
Hong Kong
Tel.: +852 2517 6238
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am – 7pm
Closed on public holidays
The author will be present at the opening reception for a book signing.
