Left Right 左 右

This work is comprised of two books. The one with an arrow pointing to the right on the cover contains photographs of women and men during the period of the Republic of China government, from 1912 to 1949. The one with an arrow pointing to the left presents those taken from 1949 to 1978, since the founding of the People's Republic of China to the reform and the opening up of the country.

Drawing from his archive of 600,000 anonymous photographs from China, Cai Dongdong pairs images across political reform that show someone of similar age, facial structure, body posture and situation. Originally taken in private spaces for private purposes, the photographs take on a different meaning and become part of a conversation between two different historical eras of a country.

"Those portraits were selected by me from nearly 600,000 photographs and divided chronologically according to people's clothing, makeup, and the text on the backs of the photos. The pictures with the same page number on the opposite sides are a pair. The comparison and contrast of the two books display the changes in the appearance of women and men as mapped by the different social systems and ideologies of the two periods."

Design by Cai Dongdong & Wang Lisha
Self published 2024