03
–China
When Tomek Niewiadomski took photos during his six-week trip around China in 2005, he did not want to prove anything. The project had no pre-ordained theses; it seeks to say neither good nor bad things about China. It is also not objective, because it cannot be so – photography is always a presentation of the subjective, emotional view of the subject; it is a very personal statement.
When Tomek Niewiadomski took photos during his six-week trip around China in 2005, he did not want to prove anything. The project had no pre-ordained theses; it seeks to say neither good nor bad things about China. It is also not objective, because it cannot be so – photography is always a presentation of the subjective, emotional view of the subject; it is a very personal statement. Niewiadomski was primarily interested in people, and he devoted most of his photos to them. He photographed Chinese people living and existing in their natural surroundings. He did not arrange the people in his photos and he tried not to interfere with them at all. The goal was to record natural, normal, sometimes even random situations.
During his journey, he looked for places still untouched by the dynamic development of civilization. He photographed the inhabitants of villages found high in the mountains, living in small towns and monasteries. He recorded their everyday lives, trying to capture the real atmosphere of these places, showing their uniqueness or even otherness, but without choking on exoticism and Orientalism. He eschewed the sin that most often befalls Europeans who visit Asia – he avoided looking at China and its people superficially.
The presented photos were taken in connection with the company calendar of J&S Energy S.A. Every year, a different photographer creates the images for the calendar by presenting a different city, country or region of the world. Previous calendars were created by, among others, Tomasz Tomaszewski and Tomek Sikora. The calendar prepared by Tomek Niewiadomski was awarded a gold medal at the Vidical International Calendar Competition 2006.