Beijing Captured in Photos

Ten of the world’s most respected photographers have gathered in Beijing to capture images of the city as it prepares to enter its final year of preparations for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

All masters of photography, the photographers worked hard during the Olympic City Photography Project to understand the transformation of Beijing and to portray it in their works, during May 2007, one of the most beautiful times of the year in the capital.

Organized by Beijing Foreign Cultural Exchanges Center, the Olympic City Photography Project was sponsored by the Publicity Department of Beijing Municipality and the Media and Communications Department of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG). Participating photographers hailed from the United States, Spain, France, Japan, Germany and Malaysia. The photographers are all the men of their time in the photographic field, with worldwide reputations and experience gained while doing some of the most difficult and dangerous photo assignments imaginable. Their images are widely circulated and have been published in some of the most renowned newspapers and magazines and in some of the most important private and not-for-profit publications in the world. Many of their images are now available in books and via the Internet and are exhibited in some of the finest photographic and fine arts galleries in the world.

During this one week photography project, from May 10 to 16, the photographers visited Beijing’s world-famous cultural heritage sites, Olympic venues, business streets, shopping malls, cultural performances, schools, training centres and rural villages to experience and better understand how this ancient, modernizing city is breaking new ground in constructing a more elegant civilization. Their works will present a great Olympic city to the world.

One highlight of the project was the “Beijing in the Same Moment” Activity held on May 11, 2007, when photographers captured various places of the city at the same moment.

Meeting at the end of their concentrated week of photography as part of the Olympic City Photo Project at the 798 Arts Space in Dashanzi, ten noted photographers from Malaysia, France, Spain, Japan, Germany and the United States expressed their feelings about their Olympic City experience.

Harry Mattison of the United States, famed for his wartime photography in El Salvador and Nicaragua in the 1980s on behalf of publications such as TIME Magazine, Life, The New York Times and Le Figaro and who now teaches at the Maryland Institute College of Art, said of a trip to a dance academy in Beijing, “The dancers were very good. I was emotionally moved on several occasions. It was more than goosebumps: it was like something was happening inside of me.

“This has happened several times during this trip; that alone makes it worth remembering. The city has been very good to us. Their support has been fantastic and our guide/translators have done everything within their power to ensure our success.”

Christophe Agou of France—now based in New York City—said, “I was anxious before I left to come here. I didn’t know what to expect, but I was expecting more control. I didn’t know what the schedule would be, but I had a kind of faith and trust in what would happen because of my trip to Shanghai in 2005.

“As it turned out, they [the organizers] were very open to my ideas and the changes I requested in my contract. It went very smoothly.”

Agou, too, said his work was greatly aided by his guide/translator: “I had an amazing translator who was willing to go the extra mile to find what I was looking for.”

This included an extraordinary experience atop an old section of the Great Wall of China where the wind at an elevation of 1,600 metres made photography a risky activity.

“The wind was really blowing, I tell you, but there was this endless, gorgeous, breathtaking view, but then things just got better. I was telling her that I felt like the feeling I get when I listen to “La vie en rose” by Edith Piaf and my translator takes out her cell phone, pushes some buttons and all of a sudden Edith Piaf is singing “La vie en rose!" I couldn’t believe it.

“This was just one of the moments when I felt like I was invited and they wanted to ensure my success.”

Agou, who has photographed in Japan, Turkey, Cuba and the United States, with works appearing in TIME, Newsweek and Life magazines and with exhibitions in Houston and New York, said he feels Beijing is much less “frenetic” than New York, which he photographed during the episode known as 9-11.

“9-11…I really had a sense of loss. I could not believe what I was seeing. I photographed it.”

In Beijing, he said, “The contrast is in how fast this city is changing, working and moving in their eagerness to open up themselves to the world and to welcome us. This is clear.

“As a photographer of people, I love this. Emotionally, in Beijing, I feel the emotions are right under the skin. In a way, I hardly understand this culture, but they make me feel a part of it. They are gracious people.”

Agou said, "I grew up in the countryside in France so I grew up this way; I have experienced this in other places, but here it’s more consistent. I have developed an affection for China, Beijing and for life. This will build an image down the road.”

Photographically speaking, Agou said, “Visually, Beijing is fascinating. The ancient-modern relationship is very compelling. The contrast creates a 'full circle' that reminds me of something Celine once said to the effect that ‘extremes touch each other.’ This makes sense here. This is good for a photographer, because in this there is no beginning and no end.”

Ian Teh, who was born in Malaysia and raised in the United Kingdom, has been coming to China since 1995. In fact, China helped in his making a career decision to switch from being a graphics artist who takes photographs to becoming a full-time photographer.

His work has been supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which resulted in the exhibition Together with Migrants. His Vanishing Landscapes and Displaced Lives on the Yangtze River body of work has been exhibited worldwide, including Beijing, Hong Kong, London and New York. He is a documentary photographer, heavily influenced by the work of W. Eugene Smith.

“I have enjoyed the amount of assistance we’ve had, and I learned that my way of working has some faults.” Teh said he prefers to go it alone on a photo project and to eschew help from official circles. “But, by having help, I found there was much more opportunity. My 'ground skills' are slow, but sometimes they are more rewarding.

“As a photographer, you must have access. The number one thing you want is to get below the surface so you can actually express something you feel is worthwhile. You also want to do justice to the subject.”

Teh said he accomplished this in Beijing during the Olympic City Photo Project.

Japanese photographer Mochizuki Hisashi, who has been coming to China for 28 years and who specializes in landscape photography said of Beijing, “What has changed? Everything. I have been photographing the same trees each month for years. The whole environment around these trees is changing.”

Hisashi, who is planning a large photographic exhibition in connection with the Beijing Olympics in 2008, said he likes to participate in events such as the Olympic City Photo Project.

“It gives us photographers a chance to come together and to share.”

But, perhaps one of the most interesting commentaries on the Olympic City Photo Project came from Kenneth Jarecke of the United States, who has photographed everything from the Olympic Games to turmoil in Africa and who often works for the conservative U.S.News & World Reports.

“The last time I was in Beijing was 18 years ago to cover the visit of Gorbachev [former general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the USSR]. I was in Pingyao [Shanxi Province] in 2006, but I didn’t stop in Beijing; I went straight to Pingyao."

As a photographer with Olympic experience, Jarecke expects to be in Beijing often in the coming year so he felt that it was time to re-experience Beijing and the Olympic City Photo Project seemed a good way to do it.

“I don’t get culture shock, but my first time here in 18 years was a shock. People are a lot more open now. They don’t stare at you because you’re from the outside. There is still a closeness and warmth that you wouldn’t see in other cities this size. The people here have been great, and I’ve experienced no problems whatsoever.

“I was ambivalent about coming back to Beijing. I really didn’t care to, but I’m going to be here a lot in the coming year, and now I’m very excited about it.”

As one of the most experienced “China hands” involved in the project, Yann Layma now lives in France. But this has not minimized his affection for China.

“The world is changing very fast with globalization. Too many places are the same and not as diverse, and Beijing is part of this globalization today, but the enthusiasm of the people is unbelievable. China has nice people before all, people who have endured some tough times; people around the world don’t know that yet.

“There are two things about China: it has a deep culture and its people are easy-going; they are also working and constructing. All the people have an enthusiasm and are thinking about the future.”