One of my aims is to use this website to introduce readers to photographers who are little known on the web but have created sterling photo books. The web presence of Xu Yong's Backdrops and Backdrops is almost non-existent. That is, once you discount the hundreds of spammy "Buy This Book" pages that result from searching for information. This is a shame as the book is a fantastic little volume that deserves comment.

The "souvenir photograph" of subject and family, or subject and friends, in front of a landmark location, is arguably the most commonly composed photo of all the millions of photographs taken each day. Why is it that while we all do it, and who amongst us can say we have not, when we see others do it back home we rib each other in a 'look at them' fashion and smirk at the wooden poses assumed. A fair generalisation would be to say that the practice is more widespread in asian cultures. The asian family in front of a monument shot is the epitome of the genre. In Backdrops and Backdrops, Xu Yong uses this cliche as a commentary on China today.

It is all too easy to brush aside such photography with a broad brush claim of amateurism and assign a loose motive of saying I Was Here to the category. To do so would be naive. Standing before great landmarks with your family, and amongst other families, is a deeply communal rite. A connection is made between the history of a family and an historical location. In China, the ritual is more pronounced than in any other country. The cities of Beijing and Shanghai, where Xu Yong's photos are taken, are laden with the propaganda of centuries. These are eternal cities. Destiny and destination. To bring your family to these giant metropolises, in a country which restricts the movement of its residents, is a pilgrimage that must be preserved by the family portrait. It says we are fortunate enough, affluent enough, and privileged enough to have done this. The family creates its own propaganda before the backdrop of history.

Xu Yong's book is double sided. Start from one cover and it shows portraits of families in front of Tiananmen Gate in Beijing. Start from the other and see families on the waterfront Bund in Shanghai. All the portraits at taken in the same manner. The effect is that Beijing's Tiananmen Gate and the futuristic skyline of Shanghai become flattened backdrops that you might as well see in a portrait studio, airbrushed onto a wall. The neatly posed families are flooded with sentimentally golden technicolor light. It is not altogether different from the very earliest days of photography. Well heeled families would head to the town's portrait taker to create an image for posterity. Photography may have changed immeasurably over 200 years, but has the family?

Beijing and Shanghai are vastly different cities. Beijing is the old guard, stern and traditional, the cultural and historical capital. Shanghai is the brash, consumerist, financial, and technological new front. The families posing in these photographs assume poses and mannerisms in line with those personalities. In front of the Tiananmen gate, children wave Chinese flags, smiles give way to national pride, and clothes are formal. At the Bund, there is relaxation, clothing labels, affection, and fun. Xu Yong shows both sides of the Chinese psyche. There has been a lot of chatter lately about the expressionless or so-called deadpan photograph. By stripping away the expression, so the theory goes, a veil or facade drops and we can see the real person beyond, and thus ourselves. There is none of that here. It is pure self-concious posing. We see exactly how these people wish to remember and be remembered.

All the photos in this book are circular. Again, this harkens back to the early days of keepsake photography, with carte d'visits fixed inside oval victorian frames. The circular composition is at once distant, as in the view through a binocular eyepiece, and voyeuristically close, as through a peephole or indeed our own eyes. As the two series of photographs proceed, and become closer to one another at the centre of the book, Xu Yong begins to show more photographs on each page, effectively zooming out from the scene. By the end, we view a gatefold of dozens of families, staring out from small dots.

The book is widely available and great value at just US$23 / UK£13. The quality of the printing is as superb as the photographs. At the centre of the book are essays printed in both English and Chinese. Backdrops and Backdrops is the latest photo book a series of books by Xu Yong that explore the concept of familial permanence. Unlike his Hutong books, which I plan to write about soon, this book rings with a tone of optimism. It is a fascinating little book that is a welcome change from a few other books that aim a satirical eye at the souvenir photograph.

* If you have any comments regarding the accuracy of details in this review, or you have additional details that others may be interested in, please be kind enough to contact me so that I can incorporate your information.