China through Bruno Barbey’s Lens

by Jean Loh

Although countless Westerners have visited China， few photographers have really entered China as Bruno Barbey did. Over the past six decades， untold numbers of Western photographers have shot China. Some made personal travel missions， some were working on long-term reports and others even lived in China for many years. Those photographers include Robert Capa， Barbeys most outstanding predecessor at the Magnum photo agency， who， from February 16 to September 22， 1938， snapped photos of the Chinese Peoples War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression， Henri Cartier-Bresson， who came to Beijing and Shanghai from December 1948 to January 1949 to witness the transfer of government in China （Bresson published From One China to the Other in 1954 with a preface by existentialist philosopher Sartre） and Marc Riboud， the first Western photographer to arrive in the newly-founded Peoples Republic of China who made three historic visits to China in 1957， 1965 and 1971.

These three masters are famous for black-and-white photos. The documentary images of official Chinese photojournalists were also black-and-white. For this reason， when the Chinese audience saw Bruno Barbeys color pictures for the first time， they were particularly excited because the visual records of the first 30 years after the founding of the Peoples Republic of China were mostly black-and-white. Barbey revealed a vividly colorful China. His works created the illusion that what was recorded in those photos seem to have happened in China just yesterday.

Another major difference is that Barbeys photographs of China contrast with those captured during investigative missions and seem more like scenes from a road trip movie as if he was on a journey to understand China. Some may wonder about his goal or intended theme. One thing is certain： His explorative journey has not yet been completed. Barbey continues to crisscross China because he is obsessed with the vast，ever-changing and multi-faceted country， and continues to feel the need to explore it more deeply.

Barbeys China is the subject he chose to examine and show to us. In his eyes， Beijing， Shanghai， Sichuan Province， and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are all distinct. His Kodachrome negatives from the 1970s and 1980s captured the dry air of Beijing as well as the wet alleys of Shanghai， which was divided into Pudong and Puxi areas by the Huangpu River. We followed Barbey to Sichuan and Guangxi and witnessed both the geographical and metaphorical distances between Chinas urban and rural areas.

Barbey did maintain the neutral attitude of his predecessors Bresson and Marc Riboud. He had no preconceptions or prejudices when approaching China. He only read literature about China in the French Archives in Paris. Victor Segalen， a French sinologist， poet and archaeologist， visited China three times between 1909 and 1917. In his book Journey to the Land of the Real， Segalen described a hesitancy to distinguish between an imaginary China and a real China—concerns that the language at a Frenchmans disposal is insufficient to do justice to the complexity and authenticity of the country and its culture. Barbey， however， chose to use the cameras viewfinder to describe a real China from a proper distance and a neutral angle. He went through roll after roll of film to showcase a kaleidoscopic China： the ancient capital of Beijing， the metropolis of Shanghai， the Eurasian Macao， Kashgar on the Silk Road and fashionable and modern Hong Kong， as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region， Yunnan Province and Qingdao， popular tourist destinations for the emerging middle class.

Barbeys journey spanned not only a vast geography， but also a long period of time： 1973 to 2017， which presented a great challenge for him. China of the 1980s was very different from China of the 1970s when he first visited， not to mention China in 2010 and China today. For example， in 1973， he saw the public and thousands of students welcoming the French president as well as thousands of workers lining up in conformity under the publicity board of Angang Constitution. In 1980， China began to show more individuation. Through his series of wedding photos， Barbey shined a light on the process of the Chinese people paying more attention to individual identity.

This book is the culmination of Barbeys observation and concern for China and its people for more than four decades. It is the result of his patient and skillful shooting. He hasnt made any conclusions or snapped the final picture because he remains fascinated by the constant changes in China that have always surprised him. What has Bruno Barbey been chasing in China？ A spirit， a soul， or a kind of national situation？