PDN Photo of the Day

March 30, 2015

China’s Outer Lands Through Q. Sakamaki’s Lens

A Bai ethnic school student passes near political graffiti on the streets of Dali, Yunnan province. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Reflections of a photograph of China's last emperor Puyi, his imperial uniforms and the hide of a polar bear at the former Imperial Palace of Manchukuo, where Puyi lived from 1932 to 1945. The palace was damaged when Soviet troops looted the city of Changchun. Later, the structures were preserved and opened as The Museum of the Imperial Palace of Manchu State. Changchun, Jilin province, China's North East. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Uighurs on a motor bike pass through along poplar trees used as windbreak, in the southern suburb of Hotan, Xinjiang. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
An unemployed man stays at a memorial park of Tiexi District in Shen Yang, Liaoning province, in China's North East that used to have many of the government-owned iron factories and houses for workers. But due to malfunctions, many of the factories were closed, causing heavy unemployment. Now that district has been turning to high-rise residential buildings and locals complain about unfair land grabs. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
From "China's Outer Lands." © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Ethnic Bei school children are hanging out at an old stone arch bridge in Shaxi. During the 8th and 9th centuries, Shaxi was part of Nanzhao, a glorious kingdom of Tibeto-Burman people. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
A female security reads absent-mindedly at The Museum of The Imperial Palace of Manchu State. Changchun, Jilin province, China's North East. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Uighurs, including this small girl, wait for customers for their donkey carts at Melikawat Ancient Ruins in the southern suburb of Hotan. Many Uighurs find themselves economically marginalized. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
“Xinjiang: The Shifting Sands.” A traditional home in the old quarter of Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road city in China's remote Xinjiang province, where the family carries on an ancestral trade making and selling Muslim caps. Yet much of such Uighur culture is rapidly dying due to the Chinese modernization projects. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Uighur children play badminton near the construction site of high-storied modern buildings where a large number of old Uighur communities once existed. Due to Chinese modernization projects, much of the cultural and ethnic identity of Uighurs has been dying. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
A Bai ethnic school student passes near political graffiti on the streets of Dali, Yunnan province. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Reflections of a photograph of China's last emperor Puyi, his imperial uniforms and the hide of a polar bear at the former Imperial Palace of Manchukuo, where Puyi lived from 1932 to 1945. The palace was damaged when Soviet troops looted the city of Changchun. Later, the structures were preserved and opened as The Museum of the Imperial Palace of Manchu State. Changchun, Jilin province, China's North East. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Uighurs on a motor bike pass through along poplar trees used as windbreak, in the southern suburb of Hotan, Xinjiang. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
An unemployed man stays at a memorial park of Tiexi District in Shen Yang, Liaoning province, in China's North East that used to have many of the government-owned iron factories and houses for workers. But due to malfunctions, many of the factories were closed, causing heavy unemployment. Now that district has been turning to high-rise residential buildings and locals complain about unfair land grabs. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
From "China's Outer Lands." © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Ethnic Bei school children are hanging out at an old stone arch bridge in Shaxi. During the 8th and 9th centuries, Shaxi was part of Nanzhao, a glorious kingdom of Tibeto-Burman people. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
A female security reads absent-mindedly at The Museum of The Imperial Palace of Manchu State. Changchun, Jilin province, China's North East. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Uighurs, including this small girl, wait for customers for their donkey carts at Melikawat Ancient Ruins in the southern suburb of Hotan. Many Uighurs find themselves economically marginalized. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
“Xinjiang: The Shifting Sands.” A traditional home in the old quarter of Kashgar, an ancient Silk Road city in China's remote Xinjiang province, where the family carries on an ancestral trade making and selling Muslim caps. Yet much of such Uighur culture is rapidly dying due to the Chinese modernization projects. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King
Uighur children play badminton near the construction site of high-storied modern buildings where a large number of old Uighur communities once existed. Due to Chinese modernization projects, much of the cultural and ethnic identity of Uighurs has been dying. © Q. Sakamaki/Redux/Courtesy Half King

Q. Sakamaki, a Japanese photographer who moved to New York almost 30 years ago, has focused his work on culture, gentrification, and conflict both in the United States and abroad. One of Sakamaki’s personal projects focuses on China’s “outer lands”—areas experiencing huge changes during China’s modernization—and ethnic groups including the Uighurs, Manchus, Bais and Mongols. “China has so many elements, historically and culturally,” Sakamaki told PDN via email. “Changes in the balance of power over time have created waves of migrants looking for better lives. Today, they face the phenomenon of China’s massive economic development that often creates enormous economic disparity as well as conflict between the old guard and the newcomers.” Sakamaki also says the project has helped him learn more about himself and his Japanese identity. “There is [a] complicated, close relationship between China and Japan, like brothers and sisters who influence but often hate each other.”

Sakamaki will discuss his work with photo editor Jamie Wellford on Tuesday in New York City as part of The Half King’s photography series. Sakamaki worked with Wellford when the latter was a photo editor at Newsweek, and have since developed a close friendship. “We often exchange our opinions about how photojournalism and/or photo documentary should be to make the photography [industry] grow,” Sakamaki says.

Though Sakamaki’s “China’s Outer Lands” project was shot with a DSLR, he also shoots with an iPhone, uploading an image almost every day. “It is my experimental, personal tool. I often [post] photos that could be metaphors of mine.”

Sakamaki’s exhibition opens tomorrow, March 31, 2015, at The Half King in New York City. Join Sakamaki and Wellford at 7:30 pm for a conversation about the work. The exhibition will be on view through May 24, 2015. For more on Sakamaki, please visit his website.

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