‘In China: Photographs by Aaron Schuman’
23 August – 11 December, 2005 – Museum of East Asian Art, Bath, UK
20 May – 29 September, 2006 – Oriental Museum, Durham University, UK
In 1999, I received a grant from New York University’s Scholars Program to photograph in China for five weeks. Having previously only experienced the country through either Twentieth century Western media (Henri Cartier Bresson’s historic photographs of the communist revolution; 1989 footage from Tiananmen Square; the occasional National Geographic article) or through China’s own state-sponsored imagery (Mao posing heroically; thoroughly organized masses marching through the streets; vast industrial and agricultural complexes), my understanding of the country was exceedingly limited, and based on a vision of a people who’s sense of both history and individuality had been ultimately sacrificed for a common purpose.
Upon my arrival, such preconceptions were immediately shattered. I was struck by the diversity, vibrancy, and complexity of day-to-day life in modern China, and set to the streets with my camera, in search of scenes that conveyed the intensity of both the place itself, and the lives within it. In particular, I found myself fascinated by the subtle ways in which the country’s rich past informed its present, continually resonating in the smallest of details. These photographs represent an investigation into how nearly 6,000 years of religious, cultural, and historical customs remain finely embedded within Chinese society, even within its most contemporary and everyday aspects.
‘In China: Photographs by Aaron Schuman’ was a solo photographic exhibition, exploring the subtle ways in which China’s rich past has informed its present, continually resonating in the smallest of details. A fully comprehensive exhibition of the work was realised in 2005; it was first shown at the Museum of East Asian Art (Bath, UK), and then at the Oriental Museum at Durham University, where it was exhibited alongside the museum’s permanent Chinese collection. Aaron Schuman delivered two lectures to coincide with the exhibition at Durham University. This body of work represents the diversity, vibrancy, and complexity of day-to-day life in modern China, and investigates how nearly 6,000 years of religious, cultural, and historical customs remain finely embedded within Chinese society, even within its most contemporary and everyday aspects. The exhibition in permanently available for viewing online, at: http://aaronschuman.com/inchina/intro.html
