WU JIANXIN

The term Artist is one I know I have carried as part of my personality most of my life. Still, I always felt my Occupation was businessman, or other, as sometimes unavoidable circumstances in my life dictated. Yet, in each iteration of my workplace, I created spaces in which I could visually thrive.

I think enduring photography is more than casual expression. Every single human has the innate ability to express themselves artistically; life’s happenstance will dictate what will evolve for each.

For me, I was trained in classical painting and calligraphy by masters who knew my father and expected perfection in the repetition of basics. I mercilessly trained as a triple jumper for a national team; the timing and precision became a natural rhythm of execution transferred to my shutter reflex. At another point in my journey, I “classically” trained as a sniper for a military, learning to use a small lens to seek a life-surviving detail. As an adult, I realized I have never been happy unless working for myself and what I created within the business world was always a service for others. When I undertook a new business, I would grid a layout or design and methodically walk the steps in creating a vision. For me, a method of survival for a mind seeking expression that was not the status quo was to create visual peace in an unstable world. I create my photographs with the classical discipline and principals I learned, and I seek to emphasize the similarity each of us has in wanting to belong as individuals to the cohesiveness of experience.

The images I have submitted for this show all are from China and Tibet. I choose to focus on these two places because my family and I have a home in one, and I recently traveled to the other and was allowed to photograph outside of government oversight. In both locations, whether in the countryside or cities larger in population than many American states, human interaction and a relationship with nature are still at a level of basic survival. Impact, Appreciation, and Awareness are all hindered by propaganda, control, and individual economic necessity. A movement of education and change for something other than personal comfort is a dire need.

Thank you.

Wu Jianxin