In Liangshan, poverty is a label. When I see life and death, it will be very depressing; there will also be touch. I'm getting particularly soft now.
A child holds a family portrait in a hand full of mud.
Text | Beijing News reporter Xiao Hui intern Wang Yuqian
Biography
Zhao Ming, a native of Liaocheng, Shandong, was born in 1992 and is a senior student at Jilin Animation College.
►Since 2013, Zhao Ming has used the winter and summer vacations to enter Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province eight times alone to take family portraits and wedding photos for villagers. For most villagers, this is the first or even only family portrait of their lives.
"I have a dream of a 'mountain village photo studio,'" said Zhao Ming, who wants to combine images with public welfare and tell stories from deep in the mountains with pictures, texts and video materials.
PS over family portrait
Peeling onions (WeChat ID: boyangcongpeople): Why did you choose to go to Liangshan to take family portraits of villagers?
Zhao Ming: If you want to take a family portrait in the mountains of Liangshan, you have to go to the county seat and spend 50 yuan, which is a big expense for them. Very few families have a family portrait photo.
One family took a family portrait and framed it on a door frame. The clothes they wore were dirty, and the photo studio pulled out their heads, and the gorgeous new clothes on the lower PS stood in front of the beautiful background of the green tree breeze. It seems very grotesque.
When I was a freshman in college, my grandmother passed away, and I found that I had never taken a family portrait with my grandmother, which was my biggest regret and the motivation to keep taking family portraits since then.
A family portrait of a family.
Peeling onions: What was the first time you went into Liangshan?
Zhao Ming: In July 2013, I went to Liangshan Leibo County to teach at Gumi Primary School.
That was my first trip to the South. In my conception, the south is the poetry of small bridges and flowing water.
As the bus traveled, it was only a three-meter-wide highway in front of it, and many sections of the road were damaged by boulders washed down by the torrential rain. There was a constant rumble of mudslides on the opposite hill, and my legs were weak.
After entering the village, I saw a gentle slope, adults followed by children, dogs running in front, there was a picture of the man, the mountain, the dog, but it was desolate.
A pair of brothers and sisters in Liangshan.
Peeling an onion: What kind of difficulties did you encounter during the photo shoot?
Zhao Ming: The difficulties are mainly in terms of the natural environment.
The road conditions are difficult to walk, going up and down the mountain is like taking a ladder, I often fall on my head, and the most painful thing is that the camera is all covered with mud.
One winter, I took a family portrait of a family. It was snowing heavily, and in order to get closer, my fellow took me to an abandoned, dangling bridge, which was about 1 meter 5 wide, and the wooden stakes were all loose, and there was a river underneath. My heart was pounding, and my feet were shivering.
The back section of the road is more difficult to walk, and when you reach your destination, you are covered in mud.
Recently, I spent two weeks in Liangshan, and there would be blood when I went to the toilet, and the doctor told me that it was because the climate was too dry.
"The hardest thing is taking a posthumous photo of a child"
Peeling onion (WeChat ID: boyangcongpeople): Can you tell us about the scene when taking pictures?
Zhao Ming: For them, taking a family portrait is a ritual event.
Villagers would change into traditional Yi costumes, or even change into several sets of clothes, and gather in front of adobe houses, bustling, nervous or shy like children.
Sometimes, they would bring the cattle over and hold the lambs. In their minds, that's their family too.
In Bijie, Guizhou, the old man said that this was the first time in their lives that they had worn a wedding dress to take pictures, and it was also the last time.
Peeling the onion: What about after the photo is washed out?
Zhao Ming: When you get the photos, the fellow is like getting the baby.
Once, I went to the field to deliver a picture of a fellow who was collecting turnips and had mud all over his hands. He wiped his hands clean on his clothes, then took the edge of the photo and held it up in mid-air to look at it, smiling brightly.
Someone would frame the photo and place it in the most conspicuous place in the house. People who don't have money to frame photos will wrap the photos in cloth and handkerchiefs and wrap them in several layers.
Peeling the Onion: What Touched You During the Shoot?
Zhao Ming: For many elderly people, after taking a complete family portrait, they will put on their own birthday clothes (they are also called "old people's clothes"), and let me take pictures of them.
For them, it was the only time they had ever taken a picture.
The hardest part is taking a posthumous photo of your child. In December 2014, I took a family portrait of a family, but in 2015, the child died.
I also photographed a mother-to-be who wanted to photograph a child who was born the next year. The next year, the child died.
Children in front of the curtain of Tiananmen Square.
Peeling the onion: There is a photograph of children standing side by side in front of the curtain of Tiananmen Square.
Zhao Ming: I set up a wide curtain with the background of Tiananmen Square. When the curtain was hung, the children raised their hands, "I love Beijing Tiananmen."
The children, who were around 6 or 7 years old, had only seen Tiananmen in second-grade primary school textbooks. In their hearts, Tiananmen is a sacred existence.
The moment they took the picture, they felt like they had finally arrived in Beijing. In fact, the farthest place they've ever been to is the county seat.
Soft changes
Peeling onions (WeChat ID: boyangcongpeople): Are you doing this work at your own expense?
Zhao Ming: In the beginning, I sold two cameras and a film machine, just like selling my own son. I wanted to give up because I didn't have any money.
Without bread, you talk about feelings, very weak.
Later, I launched a crowdfunding campaign on a platform, which basically solved the transportation cost.
Children of Liangshan.
Peeling the Onion: What is the attitude of parents and teachers?
Zhao Ming: My parents did not support me at first, but later they understood and supported me. Dad said, you do this very well, but you have to have a stable job first.
Friends will worry about my safety and will agree with what I do.
At least a hundred people said, "Call me the next time you go, but in the end no one will go with me." The reason I hear the most is to take a driver's license test and travel with my parents.
Peeling onions: How did doing this change you make?
Zhao Ming: There are many spiritual touches.
I saw poverty, life and death, it would be very depressing; there was also a touch, once, after I photographed the night before leaving, a small child came over with wine, "Take pictures of uncle, drink, drink." ”
I feel particularly soft now. When things come to an end, they will change their perspective and solve them softly. Including the problem of poverty in Liangshan.
In 2014, Zhao Mingdi took the first family portrait for the family. The following year, one of the children died.
Peeling onions: In your opinion, what kind of problems exist in Daliangshan? What are your long-term plans?
Zhao Ming: In Liangshan, poverty is a label. Some time ago, the "saddest composition" in the news was a common presence here. Taking a family portrait is the first step in my plan, and the second step is to take some pictures that solve and reflect their problems, and then combine the image with the public welfare to tell the story here with pictures, text, and video materials.
I want to realize the ideal of "Mountain Village Photo Studio".
END
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(WeChat: boyangcongpeople)
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