Best known for large format photographs of the post-industrial Chinese landscape, Zhang Kechun produces epic vistas that extol and underscore the sign…
Best known for large format photographs of the post-industrial Chinese landscape, Zhang Kechun produces epic vistas that extol and underscore the significance of landscape in modern Chinese national identity. For this project, Kechun embarked on a journey along one of the country’s longest and most celebrated waterways, the Yellow River, considered the cradle of Chinese civilization, which has undergone drastic, and often destructive, transformation in the last hundred years. Initially Kechun envisioned his trip on the historic river as an experience to “find the root of my soul.”
As a boy, he read about the mythic river. As a man, he went to find its source. Chengdu-based photographer Zhang Kechun has spent much of the last two years on the banks the Yellow River, the waterway considered both the cradle of Chinese civilization and, when it breaks its banks, its curse. “I wanted to photograph the river respectfully,” said Zhang. “It represents the root of the nation.”
Zhang Kechun The Yellow River ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT Zhang Kechun The Yellow River play this essay Saying that it is a song might have been a popular joke. Saying that it is our mot…
Then I determined to go and follow its pace, with all my courage and my only presentable tool — a large-format camera. That is my implicit expression. I have the knowledge that mountains and rivers are nothing a photographer may properly comment on, and behaviors like growling, making a bold pledge or a plaintive complaint on the presence of such an eternal being may look inappropriate. Now, it’s the moment that I must wake up my silent soul to quietly keep watch on it flowing for seasons, to stare at it through this journey, to drink a toast to it, to sing a song for it, and to have a sleep beside it.
The idea of this project came to me while reading the novel River of the North by Zhang Chengzhi. Once I started, the current of reality submerged my spirit. The river which previously was the source of so many myths no longer existed. Its future does not remain less radiant, in the image of this immense country with its thousands of years of history. This weak moan will soon be drowned by cries of joy; we would be wrong to not be optimistic.
Zhang Kechun, a Chinese photographer, spent time on the banks of the The Yellow River for his series of the same name. With the river considered as th…
Zhang Kechun, a Chinese photographer, spent time on the banks of the The Yellow River for his series of the same name. With the river considered as the cradle of Chinese civilization, Kechun treated the project as a pilgrimage and took his time capturing the character of the river. Shot on overcast and hazy days, the images have a dream like feel which is aided by Kechun’s quiet compositions and vaguely mysterious subject matter.
Chinese photographer, Zhang Kechun, approaches his subject, the Yellow River, from a haunting distance. However, the quiet beauty of his images conceal the river’s devastation. Changes to the weather have brought extreme flooding and drought, and moderniz
Chinese photographer, Zhang Kechun, approaches his subject, the Yellow River, from a haunting distance. However, the quiet beauty of his images conceal the river’s devastation
