Tom Carter’s CHINA: Portrait of a People captures diversity of 33 Chinese provinces
Beijing, China – As the 2008 Summer Olympics commence, all eyes are on China. But far from being the celebration envisaged by Chinese leaders, the first six months of 2008 have seen unrest in Tibet, worldwide protests against the Olympic torch and the devastating earthquake in Sichuan.
This attention has raised new curiosity: Who are the Chinese? How do they live, work and play? How much do we really know about the 1.3 billion people who inhabit this vast country?
These questions are visually answered in Tom Carter’s CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author.
Carter, a San Francisco City native, spent 2 years backpacking 56,000 kilometers (35,000 miles) across the vast Middle Kingdom to visit over 200 cities and villages, including some of the most remote locations in the country: from the steaming jungles of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan to the frozen banks of the Amur River in Manchuria. En route, he discovered and photographed immense geographic and ethnic diversity.
“What the photographs herein reveal is that China is not just one place, one people, but 33 distinct regions populated by 56 different ethnicities, each with their own languages, customs and lifestyles,” writes China expert Carter in his introduction. “It is my most sincere hope that this book unites the people immortalized in its pages – Tibetan pilgrims and Beijing scholars, Uyghur Muslims and Shanghai bankers, Hong Kong millionaires and Shanxi miners – in celebration of their glorious cultures.
Publisher Pete Spurrier of Blacksmith Books remarked: There are several books of photography already on the market that focus on China’s history or famous sites, but CHINA: Portrait of a People is the first of this scope by a single author devoted to Chinese PEOPLE! Tom Carter has single-handedly photographed almost every aspect of life humanity across the PRC.”
CHINA: Portrait of a People includes a forward by celebrated Chinese authoress Anchee Min (Red Azalea, Empress Orchid) who says “Tom Carter is an extraordinary photographer whose powerful work captures the heart and soul of the Chinese people.” Shanghai rebel writer Mian Mian (Candy, La la la) writes the epilogue: “Tom Carter’s photo book is an honest and objective record of the Chinese and our way of life...”
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CHINA: Portrait of a People, by Tom Carter
Genre: Travel / Photography / Art / China
ISBN: 978-988-99799-42
Size: 15cm x 15cm, soft cover, 640 pages, 800 full color images, with maps of each province
Published: Summer 2008 by Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong, in association with Haven Books
Price: US$35.95
Thank you for supporting photojournalist Tom Carter CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author. Available now from Blacksmith Books.
http://www.tomcarter.org
http://www.blacksmithbooks.com/9789889979942.htm
Today's Chinese nightclubs (Yezonghui) vary from their western counterparts in that headshaking (an effect of Chinese 'Yaotouwan' Ecstasy pills) and a trampoline floor replace actual dancing, while ceaseless DJ call-and-response over really bad Euro-House techno substitutes for music.
In addition to the go-go girls in their revealingly short skirts and platform boots, Chinese 'Diting' megaclubs usually pay young ladies (wunü) to populate their dance floors in an effort to attract male patrons. However any attempt to approach these girls can be expected to be met with vacant stares and disinterest.
Filmed circa 2004 by China photojournalist Tom Carter, author of 'CHINA: Portrait of a People,' a definitive 600-page volume of street photography on today's China, coming winter 2007 from Hong Kong publisher Blacksmith Books.
