A good friend from Hong Kong sent me an email this morning with a link to a BBC news article about the Chinese photographers Huang Qingjun and Ma Hongjie. He thought I’d like their work and he was right…the works screamed archival order, obsession, repetition, personal engagement…a contemporary take on understanding the diversity, translation and global relevance of China.

‘Jiadang 家当 (Family Stuff)’ was initially started by Huang and Ma in 2003 with some photos they took for the magazine Chinese National Geography. They have now spent nearly a decade travelling all over China to 14 of the 33 provinces to work with families and ordinary people, who have sometimes never been photographed, to continue this project. Huang took his first pictures as a teenager, inspired by his Uncle in an era when the obvious, traditional hobbies for the young were calligraphy and singing. He bought his first proper…