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May account for at least
another five million persons; some put the number much higher. Mr. Jiang,
like so many others looking to improve their lives, came to Guangzhou from
Yangzun City, which is further north in Anhwei Province.
I might not have paid much attention to Mr. Jiang had it not been for the
photographs he had attached to the first message. I have this past year
heard from a number of photographers in Asia, most of them living outside
mainland China. All are very competent, even sophisticated, but many also
seem too much influenced by some of the worst models in western culture;
for the viewer there is little chance of engagement, and in consequence
their work is wont to remain, as historian Edgar Wind would say, a passing
parade. |
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Mr. Jiang's photographs, however, are of a
different order.They are almost innocent. Most are straightforward black
and white photographs of children or scenes of people, many of them plainly
living on the edge of modern Chinese society.Most of the children are obviously
in poor circumstances, some clearly belonging to minority groups. But the
most interesting characteristic of this body of work, its strength, is in
the approach to the subjects.
Mr. Jiang is respectful, even loving, in a way that seems trustworthy. Moreover,
it is one of the few instances where I feel I have encountered a wholly
Chinese sensibility at work. In short, I came away with the feeling that
for a moment my own eyes were permitted to be Chinese, and that my understanding
of what it is to be a human being in these particulars had suddenly increased.
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