Passing By Beijing

“The pictures in the book are a selection of color photos I took between 2002 and 2022. They bear witness to my move from northwest China to Beijing, which at the same time is the process of how I turned from a beginner into a professional artist.” Cai Dongdong, Afterword.

Consequently, Passing By Beijing includes landscapes and cityscapes, candid and posed portraits, spontaneously observed still lives, and much more. A coherent and meaningful edit from a heterogenous set of photographs.

"When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep." Genesis 28:11 NIV

Born in Tianshui, Gansu, in 1978, Cai Dongdong joined the People’s Liberation Army at a young age, taking up a role as a portrait photographer for enlisted soldiers. This job became his formal training in the medium, developing into a career path as he returned to Beijing and opened his own studio. Through the use of archival, found photography, and installation, Cai creates half-fragmented realities. Taking readymade materials, he pierces through the skin of these photographs with mirrors, arrows, and other objects, forming what he calls 'photo-sculptures.'