Zhu Xianmin

“There’s many, many photographers, but one that’s really been coming up in my head quite a lot for a long, long time, … I don’t really know how to pronounce his name—Zhu Xianmin—or something like that, Chinese, I believe—wow! His photos, it just, I don’t know … there’s so much compassion, there’s so much sadness, so much story … I saw this picture in Beijing a long time ago and I just took a snap with my camera because I wanted to really know more about whoever took this photo, but it took me a long time to find the photographer’s name. This one is just so special.”

Zhu Xianmin was born in Pucheng in China’s Shandong Province in 1943. One of the most influential photographers in China today and the founder and pioneer of documentary photography in China, since the 1960s and ’70s Zhu Xianmin has employed the creative path of documentary photography to explore the vicissitudes of daily life, devoting himself to capturing the lives of ordinary people on film.

The internationally renowned French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson once referred to Zhu Xianmin’s works as “the eye of truth, forever confronting life.” Expressed in the emotive language of photography, they integrate the relationships between people and the city and with each other, as well as seemingly uncontrived dramatic storylines and symbolic meaning. Under Zhu Xianmin’s lens, the common people, whether rich or poor, are portrayed without the slightest exaggeration, deformation, or distortion. His works show respect for every single person he photographs, displaying a natural affinity and emotional tension. (Source: sznews.com)