-- Artist Statement
I have been making my long-term project Family Stuff series for 20 years, which now includes 150 photographs. I gather a family’s belongings from different spaces in the home and arrange them in one place to take a photograph with the family members. Most of these photos are taken outdoors, with the home as the background. Ninety percent of my previous works were shot in China during a time of rapid economic development, modernization and globalization. I used this method of staged photographs to record history. In the photos, a household’s real interior space is briefly exposed in an external space; also can be seen are environment changes, urban expansion, technological advancements and shifts in people's lifestyles. Through static documentation of the above, I create a dynamic social panorama.
From 2022, I started photographing American families. The family is the smallest unit that forms society, and many such units make up this society. I continue to use the Family Stuff series to reflect the internal structure and diversity of contemporary American society. I have observed that among American families, whether they live in big cities or small townships, there isn't much difference in their basic material living standards. Therefore, I pay more attention to showcasing their cultural and spiritual life. I spend a significant amount of time preparing for each photo, getting to know the story of the subjects, visiting their rooms, contemplating the concept of the shoot, and carefully selecting the items for display. The concepts of these works cover the lifestyle of native-born Americans, immigrants' nostalgia for their homeland, as well as themes of love, work, identity, gender and the passage of time. Each material object is carefully chosen to reflect the subject’s interests and aspirations. I move these items and arrange them in overlapping frames, visually enhancing the familiar scenes and highlighting the current life status, beliefs and emotional memories of the family or individual.
In October 2023, I had photographed a Swiss man living in a camp, with his Harley motorbike and sports car living a different lifestyle in Switzerland, which makes me thinking about to document different lifestyles around the world as much as I can. I then came back to China and photographed two more interesting subjects in December 2023. I hope to move on to showing people’s spiritual life through their material life. Through a single photograph, I depict both the external reality and their inner world. The images help viewers to look at humanity itself, understand the stories and often provoke contemplation.
Biography
Qingjun Huang is a freelancer artist. He was born and raised in China, currently based in the United States. Qingjun's representative work is “Family Stuff” photography series, including 160 works, started from 2003 and is ongoing. Robert Frank said, “Your work is an open window to look at China.” Family Stuff works have been exhibited worldwide, including Kunsthalle München Germany, Christie’s London, International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Switzerland, Chengdu Art Museum, Hunan Art Museum, Xi’an Art Museum Three Shadows Photography Art Center China, HeadOn Photofestival Australia, Photoquai Photography Biennial France, Singapore International Photography Festival, Helsinki Photo Festival, Benaki Museum Athens Greece, College of Lake County USA, among others.
BBC has featured him four times, NY Times, Bloomberg, Wired, Business Insider, Guardian, China Daily also published his works. His works are in books and magazines such as HUMAN.KIND, NatGeo, Harvard Business Review, My House My Room, Family Photography Now, Architecture Boston, Chinese Photography, Grazia etc. His works shown in textbooks Oxford University and National Geographic learning.
Qingjun’s works are juried into museum’s permanent collections, including Louisiana University Museum of Art, Boca Raton Museum of Art, Figge Art Museum, Appleton Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Florida Atlantic University Galleries, Chengdu Art Museum etc.…
