140 photos, understand the life of the Chinese people

Have you used to look at your home?

In 2003, photographer Huang Qingjun photographed 66 -year -old ginseng growers Lu Hongmin and his home in a small village in Jilin. Ginseng, ox carts, iron pots, dustpans, sewing machines, large cabinets, quilts, black and white TVs ... A photo records the life of an ordinary family in Northeast China in the early 21st century.

In the past 20 years, Huang Qingjun has gone through dozens of cities and has shot more than 140 families. The process is cumbersome: walk into the home of strangers, move all the home as all of them, and even a pair of chopsticks, a hair circle, and a charging cable. Finally group photo.

In 2012, Huang Qingjun visited the contemporary photography master Robert Frank in New York, USA. After watching "Home Dang", the other party said, "Thank you for showing me these photos, and these photos helped me open a window to see China." Zhang Jia's photo was also included in the textbook of Oxford University. Huang Qingjun also won many international awards with "Home Dang".

These photos to the world have witnessed the specific lives of ordinary people in China in the past 20 years: Daqing residents accompanied by oil pump, grassland herdsmen who wandered around, Li people who lived alone in the betel nut valley, literary and historians who lived in the ancient town, and the literary and historians of the ancient town. The coffin living together, fishermen who go to sea all year round, the Tibetan living Buddha who purchases butter lamps online ... Here, the family is no longer private, and the family is also given a new meaning. Each of the Chinese families have not been modified The picture of the original ecology.

In the past 20 years, it is also the 20 -year change in China. The items, living space, logic of living, and family situations have undergone tremendous changes in Chinese people. During the long shooting process, Huang Qingjun continued to convert his perspective of observing the observer and observed people: he found that the people who are willing to be photographed are often people who live in the countryside. What is the home of entrepreneurs? He wrote to many entrepreneurs, and almost no one responded to him. Later, he shot some people who changed their living conditions in a short time. These pictures about the family opened the wrinkles of the daily life during the transition, recorded the changes of people's material from less to more, and also engraved the Chinese people's unchanged needs for spiritual release.

In the third year of the epidemic, when the long trip was restrained, people began to look at the "home" again and re -examined their relationship with their family. Huang Qingjun left his homeland this spring and went to live in a foreign country. Looking back at the past 20 years, he was repeatedly thought that "Home Dang" means one person, a family, and a society?

The following is Huang Qingjun's narrative--

Wen ｜ Lai Youxuan

Edit ｜ Huai Yang

Figure ｜ Interviewee provided

1

In 2003, "China National Geographic" magazine found me, saying that there was a photography project. A province was looking for a distinctive family, moved everything out, and took a "family to be a family portrait." I think it is very interesting, so I took the three northeast provinces and Inner Mongolia.

The first shooting object lives in a small village in Jilin. Jilin, Changbai Mountain, Changbai Mountain produces ginseng, I want to find a person to participate in the growers. Searching on the Internet, I found a person named Lu Hongmin who sent the experience of planting ginseng on the Internet. I found the information in the past, took the train to pour the car, and held an introduction letter. Yes, there was a letter of introduction at that time.

For the first time, there was no idea, and everything at home moved out as much as possible. After moving, I found that the family depends on ginseng, ox carts, closets, and various pots and pans. In the end, the family of seven people stood in front of the house and supported the ginseng who supported them. The ginseng ox carts took a group photo and recorded the life of the family at the time.

Later, I took another three households and calculated the task. The series of magazines had two issues. Without the follow -up, I did not continue to shoot.

2003 Xiaoshahe Village, Songjiang Town, Anu County, Jilin

In 2004, it was a turning point. That year I left Daqing, went to Beijing, entered the China Petroleum Painting News Agency as a photographer, and went to "New Travel" to make pictures edit. There were many places at home and abroad. I also feel that China is changing rapidly. I remembered "home" and felt what I should record. In 2006, I restarted the shooting plan and looked more intensive to find the shooting object.

Find someone to be chance. China is so big, and I do n’t know where to be suitable. More often, travel, go casually, and look for it again. Sometimes it depends on friends' friends to introduce some interesting people.

The Mongolian family who was most familiar with everyone was randomly found. In the fall of 2007, I traveled on Alishan and drove on the grassland every day. It was very empty. Sometimes there were no people who drove far. Suddenly there were a few Mongolian bags appearing. After passing, I went in and looked at it. Essence Finally, when there is someone, there is a pair of Mongolian couples. They do n’t understand Mandarin. I ’m more than half a day. They probably understand what I want to do.

There are not many their homes, but they are very national characteristics: milk buckets, telescopes, two black dogs, texture cabinets, and wind power in the distance. The couple lived in nomadic, and they would change places for half a year, and their family would go. That photo is a settled, and the current home and family look. I like this photo the most. No matter the atmosphere created from the shape of the house, the person, the dog, and the empty grassland, it is special and different.

In 2007, I spent five years in the New Balhu left flag in Inner Mongolia. I visited Robert Frank in New York and showed him a work as a work. He also likes the grassland the most. As soon as he met, he gave me a "Americans". After reading these photos, he was going back to the book, opened another page, and wrote a sentence, probably, "Thank you for watching it for me These photos, these photos helped me open a window to see China. "

This is indeed the case. I hope these photos are a window to see China. I don't need to explain who they are, where they come from, and what kind of life they live, anyone can intuitively feel the living state of the family through a photo, and can also feel the relationship between the family and the environment.

In the winter of 2007, in Daqing, I found a family. There was a oil pump behind their small soil houses, which shows that the mining of resources has penetrated into people's lives. Now they still live there, and the oil pumping machine is still there, but the house has become a brick house.

February 2007 in Daqing, Heilongjiang

Before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, I took a family of demolished families near Jiukeshu, Tongzhou, and the home was placed in front of the old house full of "demolition".

In March 2007, Jiukeshu Tree, Tongzhou, Beijing

In Guangxi, I took a coffin in the house, and he had a coffin in his room because Shoumu could not move. We took a picture outside the house and took a picture with Shoumu in the room.

In 2017, the house and outside the house of the hundred -year -old alone in Guangxi

The family of a Shantou family was shot on the fishing boat. In this family, my wife and daughter lived on the shore. The man was fishing in sea for half a year. I invited his wife and children to take a group photo on the boat. There is a detail in the picture: According to the local customs, women cannot go to the sea to go to the sea, but there are face mirrors on the boat, and several photos of beautiful women are posted on the ship. They are all the early advertising stickers.

June 2011, Kantou Town, Chenghai District, Shantou City, Guangdong

In Liupanshui, Guizhou, two elderly people lived under the mountain with their granddaughter. They had very few homes. They were interesting to the house. Even the five or six seats were exactly the same. At that time, the government asked them to come down from the top of the mountain and live in the county seat, and changed their life trajectory.

For a while, I really wanted to shoot the water village. Through friends, I found Mr. Shen Jiayun in the ancient town of Nanxun. He is a scholar in Nanxun Literature and History. He lives in the oldest building group in Nanxun. At first, he thought I was just taking a few photos. I said that I had to move everything at home, and he didn't hesitate, saying that as long as it was helpful to Nanxun culture, he was willing to do it. His ancestral house has lived in four generations and has a history of more than 100 years.

2011 in the ancient town of Nanxun, Zhejiang

In 2011, in an alley in the front gate of Beijing, I took my friend An Yongqing. The huts that rent for three hundred dollars are everywhere. 8 years later, I went to shoot him again. He moved to the mountainous area of ​​Fujian. The house was rented. The fish farming and vegetables were raised every day. The lifestyle changed a lot.

In May 2011, in the four hutongs of Changxiang, Chongwen District, Beijing

2019 in the mountainous area of ​​Fujian

For so many years, everyone's life has undergone tremendous changes. I photographed Yang Zi. At that time, she just graduated from the Film Academy. After shooting the great Annie, at that time, she didn't take a long time in Beijing to start a house near Zhongguancun to paint comics. There were not many things. Later, she heard that she had hundreds of employees and became a famous cartoonist.

In 2014, Beijing Film Academy, actor Yang Zi

These people's homes have special meanings in a specific environment, and they also record what the Chinese and his family at that time were.

In 2011, I took a person who was the least family in Sanya Pana Valley in Sanya, Hainan. When he met him, he was weaving in the park. The local Li people would speak Chinese not many. He happened to know. We talked a few words and knew that his house was not far away. I asked if he could go to see. agreed. After entering, I was shocked. His bed was two sticks with one board, and one was sleeping. Two pots, a kitchen knife, a hot water bottle, two umbrellas, a sickle, and a suitcase, almost all his home.

His name was Tan Qizhen, who was 59 years old and had no marriage and liked drinking. When taking a picture, I helped him put things in front of the door. His sister lived on the mountain and saw that the brother's house moved from the distance, thinking that he was drinking and dying, and hurried down the mountain to see.

Such a person also worshiped a Guanyin statue in such a small home. That Guanyin is very white, clean and beautiful, it should have spent a lot of money to come back. I think it is inconvenient to move, not moved out, but it has been greatly touched. If a normal family worships Guanyin, I will not care, but Tan Qizhen is different. Even if the material is poor, he is willing to spend money to buy a belief, a thing that cannot be eaten or used. I realize how important a spiritual sustenance is whether it is poverty or rich.

In 2021, I went to see him once. He was 69 years old and lived in his sister's house. He was already dementia. He basically didn't know people and didn't remember me.

In December 2011, in Sanya Pena Valley, Hainan

2

Everyone's understanding of the family is different. You ask them, which is the most important thing, and you will get different answers.

There are young couples, girls think the bed is the most important, and boys think that computers are more important, and there are film reviews he wrote. I asked the director Zhang Yuan, which family is the most important. I thought he would say a movie copy, because the copy was placed in the most conspicuous position of the studio, but he said that nothing was important. The artist He Wenzheng liked to smoke cigars. When shooting, he was anxious, saying that it was a little faster, and the taste was gone. You will know that the box of cigars is also important to him. In August 2011, at Chunxiu Road, Dongzhimen, Beijing

When shooting, I did not choose to be poor or rich, and I wanted to reflect the lives and their lives as much as possible. But patting and patting, I found that many works of "home" are in the countryside, because the villagers are better to communicate, and they are preferred to let you enter a home, and don't mind taking the family out. But in the city, it is not easy to persuade people to move out of the house. You have to knock on the door directly and say that I want to shoot your home, and I will definitely drive it out.

To shoot rural and cities, you can also see two different home styles. Rural home is very simple, more of daily necessities. Some people in Shanxi have a parade on the main door of the door. When the BBC is still an interview with me, I also pay special attention to this. You see, the city does not post these things. The rural areas are different. If they are in the village, they do n’t go out in their lives, and they are all around them. They ca n’t see too many things, and their homes are so.

In October 2011, in Shoukoubao Village, Shanxi

The home of the city is different, richer, more personalized, and more productive products. I have seen too much, there are too many choices, and I need to buy it. If people in the city do not put their homes out, it is difficult for a person to realize how many things they have, and many things can not be used for a long time.

The person with the most things may be a entrepreneur who shot in Wuhu, Anhui in 2013. He took more than ten hours. His factory boss, hundreds of people, the company has been operating well in those years. There are 5 floors in the office building. He also lives in, with many things, calligraphy, painting, porcelain vases, large beds, large cabinets and pianos, and even big bookshelves are dismantled, moved to the yard, and then assembled back. Later, I heard that his company did not do it, and we didn't know why.

July 2013 in Wuhu, Anhui

It is easy to move things in the countryside, and every family has free place and easy to place. It was troublesome to move in the city. It was even slower to wait for the elevator to wait for the elevator during the peak of get off work. Later, I asked the moving company directly. Those moving workers were experienced, and I came down with the car "嗖 嗖". Every time I move out more things when I can do it. Because I don't know which family is in or which objects will connect another person's life memory. Someone often looked at the photos and said, "Yeah, I also have it when I have it, and I used that family. I hope that the family that records is smaller, richer, and more diverse, because even if the situation is different, everyone's memory of the times and families is similar.

For so many years, I feel that compared with cities, rural changes are not great. Assuming that in 2006, if you bought a suit in Beijing, you may not do anything. You don't have to pay anything. 15 years later, a house appreciates seven or eight times. Is this wealth related to hard work? I do not think so. On the other hand, farmers are very hard, and the land harvest depends on the sky, but at the end, there is no qualitative leap in the house. It should be said that they have not enjoyed the change in the rapid development of real estate.

Later, I consciously wanted to shoot the wealthy home. In 2008, I went to work in "Chinese Entrepreneurs" magazine and participated in the discussion. I always listened to entrepreneurs who said their home. Some people's ventilation systems were particularly good and could directly remove PM2.5. Some people's mattresses could absorb sweat. Even the mineral water that was drinking was special, a bottle of dozens of dollars. We don't understand where the good is, but indeed someone lives this kind of life. I thought that the entrepreneur's family should have some novel things that do not exist in my growth memory. We have never lived that kind of life. If you shoot it, we may subvert the imagination.

However, this shooting plan is "failed", and the home of the enterprise is not so easy to enter, and the family cannot easily shoot. In those annual meetings, I met many entrepreneurs and got their business cards. They wrote emails one by one and asked. Only Mr. Yu Minhong wrote back to all entrepreneurs.

That was around 2012. In the reply, he wrote, "You may not believe it, my family is four walls." He said that he was there, and there were few things, so he stopped. Later, I wrote it again, and Mr. Yu returned again, saying no, I moved, now there are many things at home, which is inconvenient and declined. Although he failed to make his home, I think at least he still respects people. You see that the New Oriental experience has such a big change, he can go forward, indicating that this person is good.

3

For so many years, in my photography, "people" is the most important. Even if I was shooting home, I had to think about where people were sitting, put on people, and then put things.

This concept is related to the influence of Teacher Wang Fuchun on me. In 1992, Beijing held a "China Photography Art Festival". I spent more than 20 yuan, bought a hard seat ticket, and took more than 20 hours of train to rush from Daqing. At the event, I saw the work of Teacher Wang Fun at a glance. As soon as I asked, he was also from the Northeast. He ran to him very much, hoping to follow him to learn.

In those years, I worked as an electrician at the Power Supply Bureau and encountered a laid -off; I started a photo studio and caught up with the demolition. I often take a train and find Teacher Wang Fuchun from Daqing to Harbin. It is he who taught me to pay attention to people, and the camera will always be aimed at people, as well as his "Chinese on the train". Over the years, "people" have carried the great changes in the times, and so did my family. In September 1971, I was born in Daqing, Heilongjiang. At that time, Daqing wanted to build a refinery. My parents moved from my hometown of Yuquan to Daqing. When I was three months old, my father died of work injury, and my mother took me to grow up alone. Initially, we lived in a house, a kind of soil house, and I moved to the brick room when I was six or seven years old.

At that time, we had a very important home, a small speaker, a fixed time every day, the small speaker would play programs, news and Shan Tianfang's "Yue Fei Biography", which was the only way I knew the outside world. After living in the brick room, the mother asked someone to go to the door to make a sofa. When I went to junior high school, we moved to the five -story building again, and there were more homes, such as the folding chair of stainless steel. There are more and more home, but the feeling of the home has not changed much. The winter in the northeast is very cold, and home is a warm place.

After moving to the building, I met photography and started to add a family. The first camera was the Huashan camera with more than 100 yuan. Later, my mother spent 1700 yuan and bought a Ricoh 10 for me. The expensive home is.

At the beginning, I was very nervous when I swept the street and dared not go to a place where there were many people. More often, I went to the countryside or few people. In 1992, I met Teacher Wang Fuchun and changed me a lot. I began to dare the camera to the person. In the "Home Dang" series, I am very clear that the color cannot be too bright, because the too bright color and color will cause a visual impact, grab the people's lens. In the final analysis, the photographer is still shooting a "person" and his home.

After entering the city, I felt a bottleneck, and the family tens of millions, but the buildings where everyone lived was the same. How can I shoot different?

I started shooting young people's homes. One of the important people was anchor.

This is a occupation that has only emerged in recent years. Many people may come from the countryside. They quickly received attention through the Internet and completed wealth accumulation. The family witnessed their changes from less to more.

For example, I am curious about him. When I shoot, I always ask him, where do you have so many inspirations? The most in his family is his various inventions. At that time, I wanted to make his family appear. He was not willing, so I put a big wedding photo behind him, which was taken together.

In 2019, Baoding, Hebei

A Shandong guy Tian Bin, every night in the live broadcast room and PK, his fans send him a red envelope every day. Don't look at Tian Bin there are millions of fans, his live broadcast room has many old things, no lens camouflage telescope, the desk when he was a child, too old and short, he picked up the wooden stick and continued to use it; The kettle, the black cricket beside the kettle, he will pick up and take a sip. These things were not thrown away because he felt that there were many life memories on it.

In 2021, Renjiazhuang Village, Yixian County, Shandong, Tian Bin

The most important home of roasting cold noodles, Lu Fengge, is his car. The cold noodles in his house are really delicious, and the taste is quite special. Many students buy, add two eggs more expensive, add sausage more expensive. I was wondering how to present such a home. Later, I knew that he sold about 700 copies a day, so I asked him to put on seven hundred eggs, 700 paper cups, and 700 small bowls. The number is placed in front of a cold noodle car.

In 2021, Binzhou, Shandong, Lu Fengge (38 years old)

These live people are smart. Like the cold noodle brother, he not only has good cold -cold noodles, but also studies light and color. How to shoot beautiful. There is a big brother in Northeast China. When I live a live truck, when I went to shoot a family, he asked me to help him record the video with his mobile phone. In the video, he explained how to use the non -slip chain. After recording, we went to eat. The video, the video was also released. At that time, I thought that the money should really make them earn. Their learning ability is too strong, no matter where they are, they live very hard and working hard. The home of shooting anchors, I want to convey how a person can use his home to work hard and change his destiny.

When taking young people, I found that large -scale home wardrobes, big double beds, etc. rarely appeared, and there were fewer photo frames. In the early years, the family taken as a family portrait will be taken. Rarely. They present many forms of life that I have never expected in the past: they can make money by shooting cold noodles, or they can make money by kite, housing cars, and experimental live broadcasts. Record these, I feel that I am closer to this era.

I am also thinking that some changes have taken place in the times, and people do not have to pierce in big cities. The Internet is a virtual world. As long as it is not blocked, as long as your works are interesting, you are actually the same wherever you live.

4

After the epidemic, I also had new thinking about my home and home.

More and more people have begun to work at home. The epidemic not only changes the way of working, but also changes the distance between people and homes. With a control, people have to stay at home every day, be with their homes, and have the opportunity to see what they need. Some new homes are added in, such as the refrigerator freezer, and there are some homes. You will find that it can not send it to the field, and the land is delayed.

A few years ago, the two homes I took abroad may be a bit inspired by us. One of the black families in South Africa. Their home is very simple, and there are very few homes. Beds, bookcases, washbasins, gas stoves, rice cookers, laundry baskets, there are almost nothing else. However, there is a electric iron in such a small family, which shows how tidy and cleaning them. In 2008, a black home in a black house in Cape Town, South Africa

Another one, in Bangkok, Thailand, is a family who lives in a deserted airport. There are several old planes in that place, and many young people go to take pictures, which has become a net red punch place. Originally, a developer wanted to use these old planes to open a bar, but later did not continue. Because the couple were gone, they ran here because they were gone, and they slowly had more people. They also received some attractions and had enough to live. There is a regret for this photo: I did n’t put it on a few trash bins -although they lived in this place, it was ripping, but it still carried out garbage classification.

2019, Bangkok, Thailand

In the spring of 2022, I moved to the United States to live in the United States. I am still adapting to the new environment and new language. After leaving my hometown this time, the home I took away was a photographic work. The work of Teacher Cai Guoqiang, a friend Lin Yi, was not large, 16 inches, hanging in my new home. "Case" is a gift from Grandma Cai Guoqiang. The dialogue with the sky is also a dialogue with his loved ones. In a foreign country, this photo of "Ladder" can also pin my emotions.

After arriving in the United States, I took another new home as a work, and the owner was a woman named Whitney. She lives in an apartment, which is the choice of many young people or elderly people in the United States. There is no need to take care of the lawn. The cost of life is relatively low. If you want to live, you do n’t want to live. You may feel that the city is a bit cold, or the city is not fun, so you move. I thought, what kind of person who lives in the apartment?

Whitney provided a answer that she did not have her own house, but had a lot of things. The clothes put out of the photo are just the tip of the iceberg, there are dozens of sunglasses, and there are many small handmade objects and installations. Many of Whitney's families come from their family, such as grandma's antique boxes and cousin's old sofa. After sending her first monthly salary with her good friend, she sent her owl necklace. Since then, she has collected various owls, and there are many owls. Maybe she will not be used to saving money like us, even if she lives for a day, she has to make herself comfortable, and the money will consume. Home can also reflect a lifestyle.

In 2022, Illinois, USA

In 2016, I also filmed a group of "Homeless Family" in the United States, all of which are unpaid in the United States. At that time, I followed a strayman to go to a place similar to shelter. When I wrote a name there, I did n’t ask who you were. As long as you went in, you can eat it. You can take it after eating. Tube. Some of them are quite romantic, neatly and clean. There was a tramp saying that he was going to be an artist, and he was a hungry artist.

Some of the unparalleled people are not poor, nor are they encountering any difficulties. I just want to live like this, I just choose a wandering lifestyle. That's it. You can have a lot or less.

2016, California, USA

In the past 20 years, I have taken more than 140 families, from south to north to north, from east to west, some people still have contact, and some people do not know where to go. The left photos are like those small cells in the blood of society, and each family is a witness. Through their homes, we can see the story of that era, that area, that family.

After taking so many people and so many families, the last one of the "Home Dangdang Series", I want to pat myself. After the epidemic, I will also look at my own family. Do I really need so many things? Over the years, I have also made myself live a simpler, and minimalism, I hope that the less things, the better. Look at it, see what I can leave.

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