Humanizing China - a Photo Gallery

March 28, 2007 9:34 AM

The excellent Chinablog EastSouthWestNorth has a series of photos entitled "Humanizing China." The photos are grouped in three categories: Survival, Relationships & Desires and all three sections are highly worth checking out. Via.
posted by jonson (18 comments total)

Cool photos. I'll be checking these out in detail.

It's odd to me though that the series is called "humanizing China". So many of the photos are large crowd shots that emphasize a homogonous group. Even the ‘relationship’ series isn’t super humanizing. People are shot from a distance, often from the back or side, with little focus on expressions and individual character.

Overall the series seems to treat the subjects not as individuals, but as a mass.
posted by serazin at 9:47 AM on March 28, 2007

I don't think the "acupuncture for weight loss" is working.
posted by spicynuts at 9:48 AM on March 28, 2007

wow.
posted by ewkpates at 9:49 AM on March 28, 2007

This is great, thanks!... I especially like the black-and-white photography.
posted by amyms at 9:52 AM on March 28, 2007

Nice find, jonson-- fascinating.
posted by Dizzy at 10:09 AM on March 28, 2007

Very nice!
posted by languagehat at 10:16 AM on March 28, 2007

Great post.
posted by eurasian at 10:49 AM on March 28, 2007

Fantastic. Thank you. Only desires is not working for me.
posted by Keith Talent at 11:00 AM on March 28, 2007

The ones in the Relationships list are amazing. Thanks a lot.
posted by OmieWise at 11:04 AM on March 28, 2007

The other two lists are just as good.
posted by OmieWise at 11:52 AM on March 28, 2007

This is fascinating.
posted by clockzero at 12:20 PM on March 28, 2007

My favorite is #53 in the Survival link of the peasant man carrying his wife home. That is love if ever I've seen it.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:49 PM on March 28, 2007

Sorry - #52.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:50 PM on March 28, 2007

Very neat.

I'd just like to add that for me, the most humanizing thing (re: China) has been my recent hire of 2 Chinese immigrants. Combined, they've been living in Canada for less than 2 years and our discussions about where they are from, and their Canadian experience to date, have been extremely educational.
posted by C.Batt at 1:08 PM on March 28, 2007

For myself, I can't help but ascribe anthropomorphic, almost "human" rationale when I try to understand the motivations of my Chinese Pugs Oscar & Lola.
posted by jonson at 1:39 PM on March 28, 2007

I disagree serazin, those group photos suggests to me the struggle to survive in such a mass, how could I survive in a crowd like that...

the photographs in general are great at showing people in their environment. I don't know what more you would expect. If you got too close, I think it would be quite presumptuous.

this is just a guess, and not meant to be an insult, but perhaps you just can't see the individuality, not so much a fault of the photographer.
posted by ryanfou at 8:24 PM on March 28, 2007

Very nice, thank you. I also don't see these photos as treating the Chinese as an undifferentiated mass, besides a few photos. Most seemed very personal and intimate to me.
posted by Falconetti at 10:05 PM on March 28, 2007

Just discovered this post. wow jonson, great photographs. Movingly human.
posted by nickyskye at 4:01 PM on April 7, 2007