I began making digital photographs in China in 2005, making at least one trip per year until 2009 when I moved to Beijing.
In late 2009 and 2010, Kodak provided a grant of several hundred rolls of 35mm color film, and I traveled around the eastern region of the country by train or plane or in my Jinbei, a common transport van in China often known as a ‘bread van.’
I was curious about everything at the time, and after reading how China had over 140 cities with over a million people, I wanted to see some of the lesser known though still massive cities. I saw everything from ghost cities, the new cities still under construction though largely devoid of people, to massive cities of millions which were often similar in layout and structure. Many highways and roads were under construction and I would sometimes be driving upon one that was not yet listed on my current maps or GPS.
I spoke some Chinese, but it was not enough to have extended conversations unless I was working with a translator. So I felt like an alien in my spaceship, exploring another world. I was making these trips while processing a relationship breakup, so the experience became intimate.
Later in 2010, I made a third series of China work using the iPhone and that work is very different from this work, as well as the initial digital work began in 2005. I don’t like to repeat myself in photography, to continuously approach similar subjects in similar ways and formats has never interested me. Perhaps it is a combination of being both selfish artist and a curious human, wanting to experience the many dimensions of life.
