CHINA: Portrait of a People
by Tom Carter
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Book Reviews of CHINA: Portrait of a People
Book Review: Travel Photography with Chinese Characteristics
Summary: 5 Stars
To introduce the photography book China: Portrait of a People, it is first important to actualize the mind-baffling amount of challenges travel photographer Tom Carter went up against during his 2-year, 56,000-kilometer quest to photograph China in its entirety.
As explained in the book's introduction, captions and provincial introductions, Tom arrived in Beijing in 2004 as a foreign expert English language instructor, but quickly found himself "shanghaied." Realizing that the job ad he had applied to was a scam, Tom had the option of returning to his home in America or pounding the Peking pavement for new employment. He chose to stay. 6 months later, Tom once again found himself at the mercy of China's elements, this time of the viral sort. He had contracted Encephalitis, a life-threatening disease that attacks the central nervous system. Tom was hospitalized for 10 days and recovered.
After 2 straight years of teaching, Tom decided to hit the road as a "backpacker," with a personal mission to journey to all 33 provinces and autonomous regions across the country. This trip wound up lasting 2 year and took Tom to over 200 cities and village. During this time, Tom faced gunpoint by North Korean border guards at the DPRK border, where he had accidentally crossed in to atop Changbai Mountain. They let him go in exchange for cigarettes. In Tibet, Tom often found himself stranded in vast deserts or rural mountain ranges with no civilization in site. At Mount Kailash, Tom collapsed from asphyxiation atop the 5,000-meter pass, but was mercifully rescued by a well-acclimatized Tibetan woman, who carried Tom and his gear for the next 8 hours around the kora circuit.
Enter Chongqing city, where Tom was viciously beaten by 3 drunk Chinese men while bemused security guards stood by idly. In Hunan province, Tom was detained by undercover police after he was caught photographing a street riot; his choices were to either hand over the pictures or risk arrest. He was not arrested, however, and the photos appear in his book, leaving the reader to ponder what miracle saved Tom from that conundrum.
To have even just one of these experience befall the average person would have sent them packing and on the first flight to home. Tom not only stuck it out for over 2 years, risking life, limb and liberty, but the result was his new 600-page photography book, China: Portrait of a People. The fact that Tom uses his personal anecdotes as mere footnotes throughout his book rather than the primary point is indicative of his selfless determination to honestly and candidly portray the Chinese not matter how difficult it was for him to do so.
China: Portrait of a People is a triumph in travel photography. Anyone familiar with the genre might be weary of the usual sites and sunsets that publishers throw between two big covers and declare it representative of that country. What Tom Carter has done is take the travel photography genre and chop it back down to its humble origins, back to a time when Photoshop did not exist and photographers were actually passionate about their subjects rather than their paychecks. Tom cares about the Chinese, and his compassion and empathy is apparent in every single portrait of his big book.
Tom Carter's passion is people. Yes, there are many beautiful vistas and villages throughout this book, but a good majority of the pages are packed with people, just as China itself is. Symbolism? Perhaps.
Behold the Akha minority woman in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna region along the Vietnam border in southwest China, her teeth stained red "from a lifetime chewing the narcotic binglang betel nut." In northwest China's Xinjiang region, a Uyghur man opts to have his rotten tooth pulled out of his head with a pair of pliers courtesy of a "street-corner dentist." Langmusi, a Tibetan enclave in northern Sichuan province bordering Tibet: Tom photographs a "Buddhist pilgrim family" in their home - three daughters offer the camera genuine, heart-warming smiles, though mother is laughing so hard her eyes are shut. Over in southeast China, a woman belonging to the "indigenous She minority tribe" of Zhejiang province is outfitted in her most brilliant beads and ceremonial regalia.
But China: Portrait of a People is not all antiquated areas and aboriginal attire. For Shandong province, Tom decided to reveal back-to-back images of New China's modern underworld, including three drunken "club kids" partying the night away, a sexy go-go disco dancer, two karaoke "xiaojie" on the verge of a passionate kiss, and an intoxicated man passed out in the middle of a street on top of the bicycle he has obviously crashed. In Beijing, Tom meets with an "industrial burn victim who has resorted to begging" because of abhorrent Communist labor laws that refuse to offer worker's compensation. While in Hong Kong, Tom photographs a heavily-tattooed "triad soldier" (Chinese mafia) from the neck down.
China: Portrait of a People is decidedly the most definitive collection of photos about the PRC that has ever been published. No other book can compare to either the vast page count (638 pages), nor the multitude of scenarios that Tom documented to preserve this tumultuous period in China's history. Read as many Wikipedia entries as you will, no amount of text will enlighten you to the true face of China as China: Portrait of a People has. It is an essential work of literature that will undoubtedly revolutionize the travel photography genre and lead the field in scholarly works about Sinology.
Book Review: This book IS China
Summary: 5 Stars
I am what one calls an `Armchair Traveler,' meaning someone who prefers not to leave the comfortable confines of my den whilst I explore the world. Oh, I tried it a few times back in my youth, but the heat and the smells and the confusion were always a bit much for me, so I turned to literature. My bookshelves are a testament to this: they are crammed with hardbound coffee-table books dating back to the 1970s.
Travel photographer Tom Carter's new book China Portrait of a People has succeeded in doing what those other coffee-table books have never fully managed to do: transport me across Earth to a country I have yet to actually visit.
I only recently became interested in China. What with all the news about their economy and progress, China is a country almost impossible to avoid these days. So I caved and ordered a selection of books from Amazon.com, including the standard fare from National Geographic and other fixtures in world exploration. Based on a suggestion, I also bought Carter's Portrait of a People, 638-pages of cover-to-cover travel photography of one of the largest countries in the world. That alone should give you an idea of how massive this book is. I counted over 800 photographs total, which is about three times as many as the standard coffee-table book. It took me over two weeks to finish reading.
The visual adventure that is China Portrait of a People spans 33 chapter with approximately 25 color pictures per chapter, along with accompanying captions, maps and province history, all written by Carter. We begin in China's capital city, Beijing, where ancient homes inhabited by the locals are being demolished so that the Communist government can generate higher tax revenue on apartment towers. We also witness an elderly couple merrily celebrating their 55th marriage anniversary, and a gorgeous young lady in a pink cheongsam demurring from Carter's camera, all the more stunning for her shyness. We follow Carter's camera to North China, where a record-breaking blizzard has turned an entire city, Shenyang, into a white apocalypse; the photographer was on location merely by coincidence. In Shanghai we catch a final glimpse of the old town still standing stubbornly against a backdrop of gleaming skyscrapers. Prostitutes bearing voluptuous breasts welcome Carter into their threshold; meanwhile a legless youth writes calligraphy on the sidewalk with chalk as a means of earning alms.
China Portrait of a People continues across South China, where fashionable Hong Kong youth dance in the city streets, Africans loiter in front of their immigrant ghetto, and Tanka fisherman scream their catch from the bow of their boat. On the island of Hainan, a boy is swallowed up by a room full of coconuts, and ethnic Li and Miao people dressed in a rainbow of hand-woven attire tell the plight of their minority status. Onward to the jungles of Guizhou, where a wooden village named Zengchong stands oblivious to the urban progress China so often boasts of in the press. Up to Central China, Carter captures a pregnant woman in Hebei who proudly reveals her naked belly. In Gongtan, a brother and sister watch with quiet despair as their 1,700 year-old mountain village is bulldozed by government developers scheming to construct a power plant. In Xinjiang, Muslim Chinese called Uyghur carry on their Central-Asian customs despite gentrification efforts by the Han. Carter's epic tour concludes with Tibet, where he ventured to the farthest outposts in every direction to record nomadic shepherds and Buddhist pilgrims living just as they have for thousands of years.
No, China Portrait of a People was not shot by a team of professional photojournalists; it was photographed solely by a single person. Tom Carter, an American travel photographer, lived in China for over 4 years, and spent half that time backpacking across the country's 33 provinces to create this colossal collection of photography. He has achieved in this book what National Geographic has yet to accomplish. I have been a subscriber to NG for over thirty years, so I say this with relative certainty.
I am reluctant to even call this a coffee-table book. It is so much more than that. It is a record of history-in-the-making. The photographs are documentary in their purpose; they have no agenda and no ulterior motive. China Portrait of a People is exactly that: a portrait of an entire culture which is divided up by 56 ethnic groups spanning 3,705,406 square miles.
In short, this book IS China.
Book Review: Verbal and Visual Images by an Ambassador of Good Will: Tom Carter
Summary: 5 Stars
Rarely does a book of richly colored photographic images of a country and the people that inhabit that country on every page reveal so much of a culture that the book becomes an instant resource for fascinated travelers (real and armchair), students, teachers, and readers who care about the planet we call Earth. CHINA: PORTRAIT OF A PEOPLE is indeed what the title suggests: within the covers of this book are more faces sampling the 1.3 billion people who inhabit the 33 provinces and the 56 cultures of the vast country of China, faces that range from the new born to the elderly, the healthy to the suffering, the traditional culture bound with the new Westernized modern look, all placed within the context of the land and the life differences in one fascinatingly diverse country.
Tom Carter almost unintentionally created this brilliant book. His goal was to spend two years traveling across China, lingering long enough in each of the varied provinces to learn the customs, the people's way of life, the history that varies so greatly among the provinces (both ancient and recent - meaning within the last century), and capture the land and the people who dwell there with his camera. A young politician by training, Carter had already made a similar journey through Mexico, Central America and Cuba: this idea of earnest sociological, journalistic and humanitarian investigations was in place. In 2004 he traveled to the People's Republic of China as an English language teacher in Central China and in two year's time he resolved to learn more about the people who inhabit this divers and historically rich land: in 2006 he began his trek by every possible means of transportation traveling through every province, staying is many cities, soaking up the realities of life there that too often are obscured from tourists, committed to learning all he could, incorporating the splendors of the vistas from the Gobi Desert to the highest mountains of Tibet to the lush mountains and rivers and the seas and oceans that brush China's borders - and capturing it all on film!
Few of us realize how disparate are the various provinces of this great country. Carter shows us these variations of religions (Buddhism, Muslim, and variations within these, and more), farming, apparel, ritual, celebrations, animals, connections to the earth, the influence of the mass changes of Westernization on the beauty of the historically significant architecture, the lay of the land in the way it supports (and in certain cases dooms) its people, the forms of sport and entertainment, compassion and revolt, and the response of the people to the presence of an 'outsider'. Carter's photographic images were taken with Olympus Camedia C400 camera: more color saturation could not be possible than in the images we see here.
Another major aspect of this book is the presence on most pages of a few words by the author that so simply define the meaning behind each of the provinces and the people he has captured on film. Each section on each of the 33 provinces begins with a succinct description about the historical significance and the unique aspects of that province. At times there are bits of poetic moments shared, and at time the words of someone he met are shared. In all, then, this as complex a diary of a country as any book presented about he vast country that is China, an ancient and yet also very modern neighbor. Reading and absorbing this book will provide the reader with a true sense of the cultural riches of China: more important, the reader will feel an affinity for these people with whom we share life on the planet. Highly recommended to all readers. Grady Harp, August 10
Book Review: Entertaining and Essential Introduction to China! Highly Recommended.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll just state that this book should be used in all American schools as a personal introduction to China, or -- as the author explains -- "the 33 provinces of the fourth largest country in the world," which includes "56 different ethnicities, each with their own languages, customs and lifestyles."
CHINA: Portrait Of A People is an amazing book. No less remarkable for its unpretentiousness. The author and photographer, Tom Carter, is no crusty academic, and what he provides here is a personal (and personable) view: a voyager's log in part and what is essentially a superior example of guerrilla photojournalism. The book is divided into 33 chapters, one for each province, and before each chapter are his recollections of his difficulties traveling to the regions as well as episodes where Chinese individuals (see "I, Shen Mei Li," page 134) are allowed to speak for themselves, as well as fragments of poetry and other uniquely Chinese related material -- just enough to wet the appetite for the remarkable images -- some gritty, some even grotesque -- you are about to see.
Favorite images, sections? Hard to pick since there are so many. The photo-illustrated journey starts at Beijing ('the epicenter of the "center of the world,''' as Tom Carter writes) and concludes with Tibet ("Middle of nowhere, center of everywhere"). With more than 600 pages in between. (The images in this final section -- Tibet -- are among the most emotionally compelling and beautiful of the book.)
With a country as vast as China (and one as culturally and historically ancient), there's a lot to see and Tom Carter provides a vast array of images and views -- glimpses of a country on the cusp of a sweeping transformation: a great nation that still identifies as Communist while embracing new Capitalist ways. These photos then also provide historical artifacts as modernization plows away thousands of years of history.
The scope of this book is epic, yet broken down into satisfying sections. So it's user friendly. And again I would mention that the book's lack of pretension and self-conscious artiness lends it a down-to-earth charm. It's like a pilgrim's account of China experienced first hand and shared in photographs. And I found myself fascinated by certain details (the "hair salon girls," pgs. 28,169, 331 and the "double lucky" eyelids/cosmetic procedure), among other things.
Of the places I'd like to visit on account of this book, top of the list would be Tibet and places like the Portuguese-influenced Macau, and of course Beijing ("Chaoyang"). Then: remote Heilongjiang ("Harbin"), Inner Mongolia (which is one of the most beautiful sections of the book), coastal Shandong (birthplace of Confucius), Jiangsu (with its sad and bloody history of Japanese invasion), Fujian, Guangdong ("Dapu"), of course Hong Kong (for its urban, multi-cultural variety), Guangxi ( "Zhongliu"), Guizhou ("Zengchong"), Anhui ("Mukeng Zhuhai," the Bamboo Sea where Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was shot), Hunan ("Zhangjiajie" and "Fenghaung"), Henan ("Song Shan" for its 800-year-old Shaolin temple and its ancient association with Kung Fu), Shaabxu ("Xi'an" for the Bingmayong vault), Gansu ("Hexi" and "Langmusi" for its Tibetan yet almost Peruvian-appearing culture), Sichuan ("Jiuzhaigou" and "Emei Shan"), Yunnan ("Lijiang"), and once again Tibet (particularly "Lhasa").
Need I say more? For the world traveler and romantic in us all, this book will infect you with
enthusiasm, excitement, and curiosity for a place. And I can think of no higher praise for a book.
CHINA: Portrait Of A People by Tom Carter. Highly recommended.
Book Review: These Pictures Capture the Heart and Souls of 1.3 Billion People
Summary: 5 Stars
There are more than 1.3 billion people in China. Besides the majority Han Chinese, the population includes 56 ethnic groups numbering over one hundred million. Over the course of 2 years and 35,000 miles, photojournalist Tom Carter captured it ALL on film.
For their historical value alone, the 800+ photos in Portrait are priceless. I highly doubt if there will ever be another book about China like this one. Carter's anthropological-like study of China stands apart in its genre, as it focuses expressly on the PEOPLE of China. In addition to documenting the everyday life of "ordinary" people, Carter also backpacked to the most remote areas of China to observe reclusive ethnic minorities such as the red-turbaned Pai Yao minority of northern Guangdong and the resplendent Dong and Miao tribes of eastern Guizhou.
From Inner Mongolian nomads to newlyweds in Hong Kong, from the teenage girl living in Chengdu dressed like an American punk rocker to the soot covered coal miner in Southern Shanxi, Carter's camera documented the complexity and diversity of China like no other book ever has (or likely ever will). There is an old saying that a picture is equal to a thousand words. In CHINA: Portrait of a People, each picture is worth TEN thousand words, maybe more.
The consensus amongst backpackers is that China is probably the single most challenging country in the world to visit. As such, in order to reach certain locations, Carter had to travel on foot into some seriously rugged terrain. To get an idea what I'm talking about, consider that China, almost the size of the United States, uses only sixteen percent of its land for growing crops. The rest is either mountains or desert.
To take the up-close and personal pictures in CHINA: Portrait of a People, Carter also risked jail multiple times; was stranded in Tibet; faced exhaustion and hunger; was beaten by drunks; plagued by a nearly-fatal viral infection, and risked being shot by North Korean border guards. And that was only the first year!
If you plan to visit China, buy this book before you go. On the other hand, if you are an armchair tourist who never strays far from home, Carter's Portrait will not disappoint. The warmth of the Chinese comes cross in every image from cover to cover. You will laugh along with the Tibetan nomads seeing their photo for the very first time, and scratch your head at the eight-year-old acrobat student at Wuqiao bending herself like a folded sheet of paper.
Between the covers of Portrait, you will start a vicarious journey visiting China like few photographers have ever accomplished. With this thick, 600-page book, you too can travel on this 35,000 mile journey without ever leaving your home. Or better, it will inspire you to make a similar journey.
There is no way that this review can do justice for the monumental accomplishment that is CHINA: Portrait of a People. Seeing is believing.
Lloyd Lofthouse, author of "My Splendid Concubine"