The Human Face of China

(A)PICTORIAL IMAGE.

“MILLION AS ONE” From

“The Human Face of China”

By Suzanne Baker.

China is a country which has undergone vast changes in its history, from the days of Confucius and other Philosophers to the modern era, the uprising issue of Westernisation in Asian countries and the fear of loosing culture. Michael Rubetzski Photographed the pictorials in Suzanne Bakers Book on China “The Human Face of China”, his pictures capture the true face of china, from celebrations to cluttered suburbia he demonstrates his photographical abilities and produces a vivid range of images which have a powerful impact on the responder, allowing them to see into traditional and modern china, which is the purpose of the book itself.

One Picture from Bakers’ book that has a particularly strong impact on the responder is the image titled “Million As one”, by this title alone we are able to envisage the idea presented by the picture. Rubetzki has chosen a busy suburban marketplace with millions of people walking or pulling people behind on rickshaws and busses followed by militaria in the street as the image to partner the text, the idea of having civilian busses and militaria in the same street gives the viewer an impression of the fact that although china is a developing country and recovering from wars in the past, reminders of those wars march the modern day roads and township streets even today.

Rubetzki, through this photograph, was able to show how war may effect a country even in the modern era and how it so easily fits into everyday life in contemporary china, he uses this photograph to show his interpretation of this and to present diverse images of the current state of the country and how parts of the past may and have effected the way Chinese live today.

The image layout urges the viewers’ eyes to follow from the top right corner of the page, a roof of a shop and a large congregation of Chinese people, across the picture and diagonally down the street of rickshaws busses and military vehicles. This layout allows the viewer to experience two completely diverse concepts, that of shopping trade and markets and that of war reminiscent armour cars sharing the path of public transport. Colours in the picture are dull and almost uniform, the people wear similar colours and shades and display expression-less faces, Men and Women in the picture are almost invariable and are difficult to differentiate between, this gives an impression of the lack of individualism in china and infers the Chinese do not like to stick out of the crowd and instead prefer to amalgamate.

In a sense the text “Million as One” represents