|
“The People of Beijing”
Photos by Ramon Bujanda
By Ron Steinman
I want to introduce you to a suite of photos from China by a Spanish
photojournalist from Madrid, Spain, Ramon Bujanda --
ramonbujanda@yahoo.es. With the Beijing Olympics on the horizon and
trouble in Tibet, these are pictures of everyday life in Beijing
that you are not likely to see during the games. Though we see
occasional reports from Beijing in newspapers and on TV, rarely are
they about events that show everyday life. Currently most of the
images we see from China, whether stills or video, show
manufacturing sites that make tainted toys, pet food and
prescription medicines. We sometimes glimpse village life. We catch
sight of rivers, dams and beautiful vistas. Far less often do we
witness life as lived in the big cities. This portfolio fills in
that gap. It is a look at how some of its more than 12 million
people live in one of the world’s biggest cities, Beijing.
This March the Chinese government announced that there would be no
live television shots from Tiananmen Square in Beijing during the
Olympics. I feel positive that the Chinese authorities are likely to
ban television and photojournalists from what it deems other
sensitive locations. Thus, the importance of Bujanda’s photos as we
approach the Olympics.
Ramon Bujanda studied law, but instead of getting his degree he
started traveling the world, going to Australia, Kenya, Mexico,
Tanzania Malawi, and Brazil. He began to study photography in 1994,
worked as a photo assistant, and, as many still photographers do,
also learned video. He began the “The People of Beijing” project in
1996, worked on it in 2004 and completed it at the end of 2006 with
the view toward making it into a book.
Over the last six years, Bujanda has worked as a freelance
photojournalist on documentaries, daily news coverage, and sports
and in advertising for Reuters, BBC, ZDF, and Eurosport, among
others.
Though it is many years since I was last in Beijing, Ramon Bujanda’s
photos made me feel that I was back walking its main streets,
wandering through its narrow alleys and observing its people going
about their daily lives.
View the “The People of Beijing”
Photo Gallery
|
