After traveling to twenty provinces and viewing nearly one hundred thousand photographs by one thousand photographers, the curatorial committee from Guangdong Art Museum selected approximately six hundred photos by 248 photographers, who were dedicated to presenting a visual truth about China during a period when notions of truth and reality were rapidly and radically changing. Thus the first major museum collection of documentary photographs, produced by the nation’s own photographers during the years 1951 through 2003, was assembled, offering a revealing glimpse into rural and urban daily life in China beyond the glossy veneer of the economic boom. Selected from the original exhibition, the one hundred photographs presented at China Institute were a study of daily life of anonymous and ordinary people, presenting neither ideological paragons nor moral admonitions, but rather the vitality and diversity of a nation.
This exhibition is made possible, in part, through the generous support from the China Institute Friends of the Gallery.
