Note: This article was originally published on September 12 but was lost after our site was hacked. The text was obtained through an archived version at Google Web Cache.
At this year’s Photoville, ChinaFile presents the documentary photographs of Yuyang Liu (刘禹扬) and Souvid Datta, 2015 Fellows Abigail Cohen Fellowship in Documentary Photography which ChinaFile administers with the Magnum Foundation. Like last year’s Fellow, Ian Teh, the two photographers present unique perspectives to aspects of China which are more nuanced than is usually reported or known.
Yuyang Liu’s Kashgar’s Workers on the Move dispels the impression that China’s migrant workers are all Han Chinese from rural parts of the country by highlighting a little-known group of Uighurs from Kashgar, China’s westernmost city and the administrative center of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, who have traveled to work in Guangzhou.
Liu was born in Ziyang, Sichuan province and is currently based in Guangzhou. His photography work focuses on urbanization and immigration issues in a rapidly changing China. (excerpted from here)
For China: The Human Cost of Pollution, Souvid Datta visited Wu’an in Hebei province, Baotou in Inner Mongolia, and the outskirts of Beijing to see how China’s notorious environmental pollution has affected the lives of her residents.
Datta was born in Mumbai and moved to London at age 10. He was raised between the two metropolises, and developed interest in the fields of multimedia journalism and social justice. He has worked on photography projects on Sonagachi slums in Kolkata, India; gangs in London; pollution in Xingtai and Ningbo, China; and drug addicts in Kabul, Afghanistan. (excerpted from here)
On Sunday, September 13 at 1 PM, ChinaFile will host “Reporting Inside the Great Firewall: Photographers on Covering China”. Veteran National Geographic photographer Michael Yamashita and Muyi Xiao, a former staff photographer for China’s news site Tencent, join a panel moderated by ChinaFile Visuals Editor David Barreda to talk about the challenges of reporting from China. From the event page:
Many photojournalists rely on the basic protections of freedom of speech and freedom of the press to move freely, to access their subjects, and to bring their images to the public. But what is it like to photograph and report in the People’s Republic, where censorship is the norm and journalists often face more restrictions than regular citizens? How do journalists and the organizations who support them navigate this system in order to continue sharing complex, comprehensive stories from within China?
Kashgar’s Workers on the Move and Kashgar’s Workers on the Move are on view at Photoville in Brooklyn Bridge Park through Sunday, September 20. Check hours of operation here.
Photos courtesy of ChinaFile.