the Sugar Conspiracy 

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Tuesday, September 16, 2003 Photography of life The Nature Conservancy has been conducting a project in rural China to preserve an area of land from future development. In order to better understand the relationship of the people to their land, they've distributed cameras to 275 people scattered throught a dozen villages. While the original intent was to create a sort of "visual database" of the villagers and their surroundings, the project has turned into something more. One of the more intriguing parts of the outcome is the stunning beauty of the photos they have collected. It's not surprising that rural people take good photos, but what is surprising, at least to Western eyes, are the simple natural depictions of rural Chinese life, unencumbered by the oppresive weight of foreign photographers. Many convey a feeling of intimacy rarely glimpsed in portraits of rural life in poor countries. They are shorn of the voyeuristic quality that sometimes infects such images. They look like what they are -- photos produced by people who are not outsiders, who did not impose the change on the subject that any traveler with a Nikon almost unavoidably does. As such, they amount to an antidote to the tendency of people in richer places to caricature rural villagers as simplistic and somehow deficient in their sight, as if they are too consumed with the labor of sustenance to properly appreciate the beauty around them. But the next passage, I think is the most interesting. It reminds me of many of the misconceptions I had when I lived in a small viliage in Ghana, West Africa, and illustrates that confusing intersection where tradition and modernity collide. Perhaps the most striking thing about the collection is how these images challenge the notion -- common in the West -- that upland villagers in remote places are not built to handle change and abhor it as an assault on their pure way of life. The glimpses of life in these photos reveal how even this corner of the world -- seemingly as far from the capital markets and advertising dens as one can get -- is nonetheless imbued with a palpable sense of upward mobility. Modernity is not the enemy so often portrayed by those intent on preserving village life and villagers themselves as if they were breathing display pieces. While the photographs revel in scenic beauty and tradition, they are not hung up on the conceptions of innocence that underlie every narrative about the next destroyed Shangri-La. In the village of Wenhai, a settlement of 800 beneath the often rain-obscured peak of Jade Dragon Mountain, the arrival of cameras last year produced an abundance of photos of the new drinking water system. One villager took a picture of a water buffalo pulling a cart set against yellow flowers. The viewer sees a pastoral scene; the villager is focused on the fact that the cart is full of bags of cement. "Now we know how to use cement and don't have to hire workers from the urban areas," he says. posted by chris at 10:33 AM   ------------------

    

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