The photographer, Jin Jiangbo, enters the the southern boom town of Dong Guan to capture scenes of economic retreat. Recently vacated factories, dormitories, unfinished residences, debris left by rapid, often overnight factory closures. There is no reason to conceptualize, no need to create; one only needs to be present and to press the shutter to transform site into image. The effect is enhanced when these haunting images are juxtaposed with images of markets overflowing with cheap plastic goods meant for the global market.

In his PHd thesis on Guy Debord's Society of the Spectacle, the photographer argues that the changes brought about by globalization are generating sites that are much more powerful and spectacular than anything an artist might conjure up in a constructed image and that it was time for art to forego its traditional indulgence in the emblematic world and return to sites like those in Dong Guan. Life in Dong Guan is truly stranger than fiction.

Yang Xiaoyan sums up by describing the work of Jin Jiangbo as subversive on-site photography and visualized political practice.FULL

TITLE: Booming?
SUBTITLE: The Photography of Jin Jiangbo
13 DIGIT ISBN WITH DASHES: 978-988-17522-8-4
IMPRINT: timezone 8
US RETAIL PRICE: $45.00
PAGES: 188
WIDTH: 12.32
HEIGHT: 9.14
BOOK FORMAT: Horizontal
PRODUCT_FORM: Hardback
ILLUSTRATED: True
COLOR: 100
OFF PRESS/BOUND BOOK DATE: 02/06/09
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