Olivo Barbieri on China Heritage

On the newest issue of China Heritage, released on 1 January 2018, is featured a wide essay by Italian photographer Olivo Barbieri , introducing his nearing thirty years of activities, studies and voyages to China.

In the late Eighties, China seemed to me to be as distant and incomprehensible as a some far-flung galaxy. My only points of literary reference were Dear China by Goffredo Parise and Henri Michaux’s A Barbarian in Asia. Upon returning to Italy I produced Notes from a Trip to China (Appunti di viaggio in Cina) with a small publishing house. It consisted of three parts: daytime exteriors, interiors and nocturnal exteriors. The images were paired with aphorisms, words that described the pictures I couldn’t take or impressions and thoughts about what was happening around me. (Excerpt from the essay)

Read the complete essay here.

Cover image: Macao, China, 2010. From the series ‘Real Worlds’. Copyright Olivo Barbieri