The scenic river town of Lianzhou – located on the Guangdong side of the Nanling Mountains – has long been a crossroads. Before expressways and high-speed rail burst through the dramatic southern scenery, the route to and from China’s Deep South was an arduous one. Lianzhou evolved as an import refuelling station and retains, to this day, the character of a market town.
Accordingly, Lianzhou is a real melting pot; a place where Yao minority people rub shoulders with the Han majority, and the local fare fuses Xiang spice with classic Yue dishes. As well as the local version of Cantonese you’re just as likely to hear Hunanese as you are Mandarin.
Lianzhou’s adeptness at incorporating outside influences has doubtlessly contributed to make LianzhouFoto what it is today, an international photography festival par excellence. Situated far from the capital, there is a permissive culture in Lianzhou that enhances the open (at times contrarian) spirit of the gathering.
Of course, the success of LianzhouFoto is in no small way due to the stoicism of chief organiser Duan Yuting. Duan, a veteran newspaper photo editor who previously worked on the prestigious Pingyao Photography Festival in Shaanxi, was invited to Qingyuan [a city north of Guangzhou that administers Lianzhou] to teach the local media about photo editing in 2004. There she met the mayor of Lianzhou, Lin Wenzhao, who suggested Duan organise a photography festival to help improve the fortunes of this remote mountain town.
Eleven years down the line and this year’s festival, beginning on November 21, shows every sign of being a world-class event, with contributing artists from Africa, the Americas, Europe, Asia and of course, China.
Martin Parr, the British “Godfather” of contemporary photography, who amounts to something of superstar in the industry, will be in attendance and exhibiting work from The Last Resort series.
This year’s curatorial theme Expanded Geographies will showcase photographers from around the world who are exploring urbanisation and migration. The festival manifesto puts it thus: “Today vast areas of our planet are being actively reshaped by human forces, with great new cities arising in previously remote locations. This rapid development is bringing millions of people from the countryside to the city, and dramatically increasing the movement and migration of people across international borders.”
Being hosted in the world’s fastest and most dramatically urbanizing country, this subject matter will doubtlessly resonate with local audiences. As Duan puts it, “We want Lianzhou to be a place where we can discuss the factors and problems of our global, consumer society.”
Christopher Phillips from The New York International Centre of Photography is chiefly curating Expanded Geographies. He explains to CLOSER how he became involved in this year’s event: “In 2011, Duan Yuting invited me to organize a small section of work by North American photographers for the Lianzhou Festival, and I traveled to Lianzhou for the opening. I was enormously impressed by Duan Yuting’s ability to combine a sophisticated understanding of contemporary photography with the practical skills necessary to mount a large festival. We stayed in touch, and earlier this year she invited me to organize a substantial part of the 2015 festival. I immediately accepted her offer.”
Phillips is bringing a retinue of work from Latin America and Africa, work that is seldom seen in the self (and West) obsessed Middle Kingdom.
“To judge by the exhibitions I’ve seen in China, there has not been a large amount of attention paid to the extremely good photographic work that’s now being done throughout Africa and South America. Like China, those areas are now in the midst of an enormous program of economic and cultural modernization, and there are many similarities in the kinds of photography now being made there to what can be seen in China. I’ve invited some of the excellent photographers working in South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil to take part in Lianzhou this year, and to come to the opening in November.”
Phillips is naturally enthusiastic about all the artists being exhibited, but when pushed, he admits to a few must-see recommendations for those venturing all the way up to Northern Guangdong for the festival.
“Pablo Lopez Luz and Alejandro Cartagena are Mexican photographers whose images of frenzied urbanization in that country suggest some dramatic parallels with the situation in China,” Phillips says. “Guy Tillim is a brilliant South African photographer whose haunting images of the ruins of 20th century modernist buildings in Africa suggest the limits of economic development.”
Another festival highlight will doubtlessly be the archive images of Swiss photographer Walter Bosshard, co-curated by Duan Yuting and the director and curator of the Swiss Foundation for Photography Peter Pfrunder. Swiss photojournalist Bosshard worked and lived in China between 1931 and 1938 documenting this tumultuous chapter in China’s history.
“I met Duan Yuting in 2014 when she was on a research trip in Europe, Pfrunder explains. “We had interesting discussions on the different photographic approaches in China and Switzerland, and I showed her some parts of our collection relating to China. The most important is the estate of Walter Bosshard. Since then we have had regular exchanges and worked on the Bosshard exhibition for 2015. For the new exhibition, Duan and I have selected unpublished material that will be shown for the very first time.”
Pfrunder is particularly keen for the local audience to see the images.
“Ever since I first curated a Bosshard exhibition in 1998 I wanted to find a way to present this work to a Chinese public. Bosshard covered the Sino-Japanese War and was the first European photographer to encounter Mao when he was in Yan’an in 1937. But he also managed to get into the heart of the power of the Nationalist government. His photographs are not only unique historical documents, but also examples of modern photojournalism as a powerful visual language.”
> LianzhouFoto Festival will run from November 21 to December 12 in various sites around the city including the Old Granary, Candy Factory and Shoe Factory. For more information check out www.lianzhoufoto.com
