Then have a look at China Uncut and Unrated. This photo group at Flickr regularly posts gorgeous pictures of nearly every corner of the PR China, capturing the astonishing beauty of the diverse landscapes and different regions, the crazy dynamics and architecture of crawling mega-cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Chongqing, or the interchangeable sights of third-tier cities that still encompass enormous urban and rural spaces and have millions upon millions of inhabitants.
Some photographers specialize in documenting the despair, hopelessness and anger in forgotten corners of the PR China. Rural Gansu or Guizhou are not necessarily nice places to live, raise a family or work. But the portraits of these marginalized people - be it kids, adults or elderly - are not exploitative; they show respect and care for their subjects instead. Pictures of truly amazing people - some of them members of the so-called 'national minorities (shaoshu minzu)' in Southwest China, ordinary people doing ordinary things in small backyards and the different kinds of laobaixing (regular people) in the streets of Nanchang, Qingdao or Chengdu.
Every contributing photo artist has his or her own distinctive style. While some prefer cool black and white shots, others experiment with colours, filters and lenses or concentrate on detailed pictures of nature, architecture, lifestyles or historical artifacts.
For me (being a genuine non-photographer who tends to forget that her latest phone model also has a very good build-in camera), it is amazing what professionals can accomplish with their (expensive, I guess) equipment.
Postscript: My current favourites are Robert Lio, woOly, a-gui, Anders Öfverström, Peter Luginbuehl, Up Against The Wall, Nanbei Fung, China Lost and Found, Ordinary_Folk and SinoLazzer. But that may change quickly as other photographers join in or established group members update their photo pools.
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