Picture People on the Qingnian Road-Lost Desire (1)

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Mingyi Luo

Born in 1958 in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province in Southwestern China, Mingyi Luo has been practising photography, interior architecture and painting for almost thirty years. His main field of investigation is the city, particularly in its collective and social aspects – homeless people, migrant workers, funerary rites and local stock exchange. His series People on the Qingnian Road – Lost Desire was awarded the Special Jury Award at the Lianzhou International Festival in 2010.

Mingyi Luo has portrayed a unique period in the evolution of Chinese society that spans 1991–99. He was one of the rare photographers – perhaps the only one – to commit this period to memory and play a part in writing history as it unfolded, focusing on two Chendu streets – Qingnian Road and Chunxi. As a former shopkeeper he was familiar with the atmosphere of stores that overflow onto the sidewalk, and their customers. For ten years he photographed – in black and white, and square format – the sudden appearance of Western clothing in Sichuan Province: a style instantly – and often clumsily – adopted by the population as an escape from the uniforms formerly imposed by the Maoist regime. These hats and pleated trousers may be laughable, but they denote deep changes – an affirmation of identity, individuality and freedom, as well as a symbol of adaptation to Western fashions. A form of quiet protest and evidence of an emerging middle class. Far from a riot, this could nevertheless be interpreted as a revolution of the mind.
Beyond the sociological aspect, the aesthetic photographic approach to this phenomenon is striking in its own right: stolen moments captured deliberately in black and white, avoiding all anecdotal artefacts, tightly framed, and most of all, using wide angles – uncommon in square format images – give the spectator an illusion of immersion in the crowd, of being plunged into its movement.
Mingyi Luo claims a closeness between his amazingly effective documentary series, with its symbolism and sharply honed vision, and the work of William Klein, discovered in a book late in his career. Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki also called attention to the relevance of Luo’s series before it was widely known.