Zhang Xiao is a young documentary photographer from Chongqing, China, who was the most talked-about exhibitor at the 2009 FORMAT photography festival in Derby. He presented a grid of 20 colour photographs under the title of Shanxi, a town he visited during a touring project to document vanishing traditions and customs viewed amongst the fast-changing lifestyles of the local people.
This week, Birmingham City Library announced that it has bought the 20 images which Peter James, Head of Photographs at the Library, says "exhibit many resonances with historical and contemporary images already in the collection".
For Zhang Xiao (pictured, with a cinematic layout of photographs) this is part two of an unimaginable story which began when the Curator of FORMAT, Louise Clements, spotted his work at the Chongqing Photography Festival, and suggested he apply to the Open exhibition in Derby, 2009. A friend wrote his application form (he speaks no English) and he was not only selected, but his work was placed centre-stage in the main exhibition, hanging between photographs by Gregory Crewdson and David Lynch.
Xiao's series of images - hung in a grid format - are magical. Obviously the colours and decorative elements of the festival are alluring and exotic, and the series has a preservation quality, but what sets them apart is the way he mutes the colours and mists the backgrounds seemingly to symbolise the retreating customs and traditional ways of life. Martin Parr - a patron of the 2009 Festival - said he saw them as "reading like a storyboard". For Louise Clements, it's the "nostalgic references and politicisation in their exploitation of the contradictions and collisions within life in contemporary China".
For Zhang Xiao (pictured, with a cinematic layout of photographs) this is part two of an unimaginable story which began when the Curator of FORMAT, Louise Clements, spotted his work at the Chongqing Photography Festival, and suggested he apply to the Open exhibition in Derby, 2009. A friend wrote his application form (he speaks no English) and he was not only selected, but his work was placed centre-stage in the main exhibition, hanging between photographs by Gregory Crewdson and David Lynch.Xiao's series of images - hung in a grid format - are magical. Obviously the colours and decorative elements of the festival are alluring and exotic, and the series has a preservation quality, but what sets them apart is the way he mutes the colours and mists the backgrounds seemingly to symbolise the retreating customs and traditional ways of life. Martin Parr - a patron of the 2009 Festival - said he saw them as "reading like a storyboard". For Louise Clements, it's the "nostalgic references and politicisation in their exploitation of the contradictions and collisions within life in contemporary China".
- The FORMAT International Photography Festival continues until 5 April. More information here.
- The theme of the next FORMAT festival is Street Photography: Right
Here, Right Now. It runs from 4 March to 3 April 2011
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