The Portal, Yaqi GE
THE PORTAL
The photobook "The portal" by Yaqi GE is truly a portal, it drives you some decades ago back in time in China, but nor the cliché rural or undeveloped picture of the eighties/nineties, neither the over-exposed futuristic city that you see in every news media. It's a moment fixed in time, where everything was there entering his memory without the judgemental mind of the adults.
You can feel and recall everything like if you were there too, the kids playing in the street without smartphones, the insecure students, the lovers, the elders, the smell of the apples on the sidewalk store, the cigarettes, the village life in every corner of the big city, the concrete walks and the concrete walls, the ceramic tiles everywhere, the typical metal window grids, the Chinese roof tiles, the smell of urban dust, and even the pollution haze, everything is culture, and everything is still there.
Yaqi took details very seriously, in the small format of a pocket book, he uses soft binding, soft uncoated paper with an eggshell hue of white, putting the tactile memories back in time too. For a deeper immersion in the book, three different flap covers are provided, with different negative roll displayed on the back. And of course, the vintage effect due to the camera lens is wonderfully reproduced with the same faded appearance.
As a former resident of China for over ten years, I truly feel it.
For foreigners who never came to China, it may be the last traces before the erosion to te core by political programs. New buildings, new businesses, clean air, clean streets, clean city, ... nothing to go against, as long as we can save memories for a while, like this portal.
It's small, it's affordable, but it's a monument.
Ge Yaqi born in 1986 in Hangzhou, China, he graduated from university majoring in photography. He has 10 years of experience as a photojournalist. He is now an independent photographer, and is the author of the several photography books.
He also runs a photography book library in Hangzhou : 1908 Photobook Library.
Book informations :
Title : The Portal
Photographs : GE Yaqi
Design : Youkakin
Publisher : Xiaoyumao
Softcover, 280 pages
Print : Full offset
Size (in mm) : 110 Width x 184 High
Limited edition of 800