CCTV China Insight - Guizhou photo expo

I didn't know where Guizhou was before getting sent there on assignment. It's one of those places that one hears about in passing but where no real evidence is given for its occupation in space. So it was with a complete blank canvas that I traveled down south to the capital city of Guiyang and then Zunyi for the annual Colorful Guizhou Photo-Original. This was the archetype Rediscovering China show - a huge international photography exhibition with Guizhou through the lens - China through foreign eyes or 'Waiguoren kan Zhongguo' as my show is called in Chinese.

One of the landscape pictures on display

Stepping off the plane, we were greeted by a mini-expo in the arrivals lounge by Fergus Greer, a world-class portrait photographer. On display were black and whites of celebrities - Michael Madsen standing at a urinal, Pandora Peaks in all her glory and Bill Gates with a mouse on his shoulder no doubt losing millions for this interruption to his day. Great photos, awesome narrative and all that, I just wasn't sure what Pandora had to do with Guizhou. I later found out that the expo had a category called 'Artistic Original' which was home to any photo that didn’t feature the province itself.

The beautiful Guizhou mountains

Zunyi is largely known for the significant role it played in the Long March back in 1936. This was where Chairman Mao became leader of the army and started to make headway in the fight against the KMT. The town is nestled in the picturesque north of Guizhou and is richly populated with myriad different ethnic groups - surely a big reason for it being chosen as the backdrop for an expo on color and light.

Because of the huge amount of entries (around 50000), it's no surprise that most of the photos had to be placed outdoors; along the river mostly, as well as parks and the like. This made all the works fully accessible to the locals and they could gaze through the windows of the world as their whim intrigued them.

Interviewing Louis Mazzatenta

The expo got underway with the customary speeches and we started filming. We were hoping that our focus could be on the foreign photographers themselves. They could talk about their work, how beautiful Guizhou is, their love of China, that kind of thing. But we were unlucky in this regard because the foreigners were few and far between and we were faced with imminent lack of substance, a shell of a show, hazelnut truffle without hazelnut.

Fortunately, Louis Mazzatenta, the world-renowned National Geographic photographer was in attendance and he became the centerpiece of our show. Louis has been capturing ancient civilizations as well as the here and now nuances of life for over forty years so it was truly a privilege that we got to see him in action zooming in on Guizhou. 

Louis talking about his Terra-cotta warrior photos

I'm writing this little memoir about two months after my trip. The show itself has just been broadcast and I think it came out pretty well. It has a free-flowing and spontaneous rhythm to it, not too unlike how a photographer would go about his work, wandering in a desultory way, stopping and snapping, a spectator of life, framing it's colored silence.

An unrelated side note - don't participate with the locals in any kind of drinking game involving Maotai. These guys get quite a bit of practice and are only too happy to take on a visiting laowai all wide-eyed and bushy-tailed.