'Color of China' captured in photo show

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A new show by French photographer Bruno Barbey plots four decades of development in China, uniquely etched in time thanks to the deep hues of Kodachrome film.

China Daily丨Updated: July 23, 2019

A new show by French photographer Bruno Barbey plots four decades of development in China, uniquely etched in time thanks to the deep hues of Kodachrome film, Lin Qi reports.

Photo taken in 1980 shows a man sitting on a foot of the Leshan Giant Buddha in Sichuan province.[Photo provided to China Daily]

How surprising would it be to discover that a snapshot of a precious childhood memory had been preserved for nearly four decades by a stranger on the other side of the world?

A year ago, Li Zhao, a woman from Shanghai who is based in New York and Miami in the United States, spotted herself in a photo taken by French photographer Bruno Barbey in 1980. The photo shows a class of young students diligently practicing the accordion at the Shanghai Children's Center, and Li instantly recognized the girl in the upper left corner as herself.

Barbey recalls how Li sent him the photo in an email, asking if she could have a print of it.

"I replied yes, on the condition that she would send me a recent photo of herself."

So Li did just that, and emailed back a photo of herself attending a party in Palm Beach in 2016.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Barbey used the two photos side by side in Color of China, a collection of photos that the Paris-based photographer took in China between the early 1970s and 2018. Released in April, the Chinese-language work is a vivid portrait documenting the course of the nation's development over the past four decades, offering both a grand historic account and a personal perspective of China.

The photo capturing the moment from Li's childhood featured in Color of China is on show at Barbey's solo exhibition of the same name, which runs at the National Art Museum of China through Sunday.

The exhibition and the publication of the book coincide with the 70th anniversary of the founding of People's Republic of China, which will be officially celebrated on Oct 1.

Barbey is also among several members of the French Academy of Fine Arts, one of the five academies of the Institut de France, whose artworks have been exhibited at the Beijing museum this year. These shows mark this year's 55th anniversary of the formal establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations.

In one section of the exhibition, photos depicting China's modern, rapidly-urbanizing cityscapes are projected onto large screen. Another section displays the color images that Barbey captured during his first two visits to the country in 1973 and 1980, including the photo of Li's accordion lessons, which evoke a strong feeling of nostalgia among visitors. They are part of a donation of 70 photos by Barbey to the museum.

[Photo provided to China Daily]

Barbey first came to China as a member of a French delegation led by Georges Pompidou who served as France's president from 1969 until his death in 1974. Accompanying the French delegation helped him to extend his visa and stay in China for two more weeks-which he regarded as "very lucky" since travel in the country was relatively restricted to Westerners at that time, Barbey tells China Daily.

Barbey returned to China in 1980, this time with his wife Caroline. They traveled extensively around the country, photographing and filming for more than five weeks in Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan province and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Before he came to China, Barbey's impression of the country was largely based on photos taken by his famed predecessors at the renowned international photography agency, Magnum Photos, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa and Marc Riboud.

"Back in the 1970s and 1980s, most pictures of China were taken in black and white. Few of the great photographers from France came to China, and there was not much color photography work shot there in the 1970s," Barbey says.

Aided by Kodachrome film, Barbey's images captured the historic and colorful moments of a country on the move.

A photo of rice paddy fields near Leshan, Sichuan province.[Photo provided to China Daily]

Barbey, 78, says he saw former premier Zhou Enlai many times (during the 1973 visit). "The trip by the French president lasted for five or six days, and Zhou was with the delegation every day for reasons of protocol."

Barbey recalls that whenever Pompidou visited Beijing, Shanghai or Datong in Shanxi province, where the French president traveled to see archaeological sites, he saw Zhou every day.

"Zhou is a special figure to the French people. He spent some years in France as a young man, among the generation of Chinese students who came to the country on a study-work program."

Barbey remembers asking Zhou's interpreter, a woman in her mid-50s, how many French interpreters of her caliber were there in China-and she answered there was "about 11". When he visited Shanghai, he was told that there were only three French people living in the city.

One of the most iconic photos Barbey took from the 1973 visit is a portrait of Zhou when he accompanied Pompidou on a boat trip around the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province.

A picture taken by French photographer Bruno Barbey in 1980 shows a class of young students practicing the accordion at Shanghai Children's Center. [Photo/China Daily]

The image is not included in the show at the National Art Museum, but a portrait of another important figure who had a connection with France-a snapshot of Ba Jin sunbathing in 1980-is on display. The prominent Chinese author also studied in France for two years during the late 1920s.

"I met him very briefly in Shanghai at his house. He still spoke French," says Barbey.

The warm tones and sharpness of Barbey's imagery also preserve the vibrant details of people's everyday lives at a time when taking photos remained a luxury for many. Many of the scenes and ways of life have now vanished from the fast-paced metropolis. For example, one photo Barbey took in Nanjing shows boats with elongated sails traveling along the Yangtze River, while another photo shows paddy fields on the outskirts of Shanghai which have now been replaced by high-rise buildings.

Jean Loh, a photography curator and publisher, comments in the Color of China's foreword: "Beijing, Shanghai, Sichuan and Guangxi are, in his eyes, so different and distinct from one another ... His Kodachrome film faithfully captured the ochre red of the imperial palace of the Forbidden City and the morning blue of the Shanghai Bund."

Bruno Barbey, French photographer. [Photo/China Daily]

Since joining Magnum in 1964, Barbey has covered news events and social developments in every corner of the globe.

"In the golden age of photojournalism, as a Magnum photographer he was always on the scene; he stood right at the crossroads of history," says Wu Weishan, director of the National Art Museum of China and a correspondent member of the French Academy of Fine Arts.

"Not only did he document China's past, but also, tinged with an insightful sense, he captured its dramatic transformation from a traditional civilization to one in the throes of modernization."

[Photo provided to China Daily]

'Color of China' captured in photo show

A new show by French photographer Bruno Barbey plots four decades of development in China, uniquely etched in time thanks to the deep hues of Kodachrome film.

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