Travel & Humanitarian Photos
As part of my current assignment in China, I was fortunate to be invited to visit the home of one of China’s most celebrated traditional artists.
At first glance, these may look like very delicate drawings of characters from Chinese folklore. However, they’re actually incredibly intricate paper cuttings, cut painstakingly from red paper and set upon a white background and then arranged to hang upon a wall.
This gentleman is a former doctor who wanted a hobby in his retirement but who was also keen to preserve an ancient Chinese craft.
The doctor creates the characters from ancient Chinese stories and draws his own interpretations of how those characters might look. He then embarks upon a two-day task of cutting out the lines that depict his illustrations.
This is an image of…. yes, it’s me. Drawn, cut-out and mounted in the space of ten minutes.
He doesn’t sell his paper cuttings, not at any price. You won’t find them in a shop or in a gallery, he creates them simply to keep the tradition alive and has hundreds, possibly thousands carefully rolled and stored in his study. There are competitions in China for Paper Cutters, the Doctor proudly told me “I’ve won every competition I entered”. However, he’s a humble man, the winning plaques that he owns are wrapped up in polythene bags in the kitchen. He’d rather see his artwork on the wall than the spoils of his competition wins.
As “the first foreigner to visit his home” he generously presented two precious paper cuttings to me as a gift. I was, as you can see, enormously proud and very humbled.
Another example of how photography has opened doors to me that I wouldn’t even be aware of otherwise. It’s been a learning experience working in China, for sure, but one of the lessons learned is that the Chinese people have been wonderfully hospitable and that I’ve been treated like something of a dignitary here. People are keen to help and even more keen to learn about me, my history, my background and, perhaps surprisingly, my views about China.
The Doctor and his wife with representatives from the Yunnan Ageing Federation, the Yuxi University of the Third Age and the local CBM organisation.
Another firm friendship established, job done.
These are very impressive, I love the fact that as you say photography can open so many doors.
It´s great to see the very enthusiastic Asian hand shake in the last shot too.
Pure art.
beautiful and nice learning.
congrats. i enjoyed very much.
and is nice to see you in that photo, standing back those people.
Lovely story. I completely fell in love with China and the Chinese people and met many wonderful individuals in my short time traveling there. It wasn’t long enough nor extensive enough! What a wonderful door your photography has opened there! Longing for the day my photography will take me on adventures such as this! Hoping, dreaming, pursuing…
On a recent trip to China, my father returned with a paper-cut picture. As you say, very intricate and delicate.
Nice to see you in the pics for a change, but I can’t help wondering whether you have a piece of spinach stuck in your teeth or something!
These are amazing. I haven’t yet seen these while living in Taiwan, but the artistic themes are interesting.
P.S. – Happy Birthday (a little bird in Utah told me).
lovely Gavin!
Hey Gavin! beautiful pictures.!! quite moving actually to have read on the friendship forged.
I am abit curious on the choice of the shutter speed used. 1/20, gaps 1/13… didnt you combat with motion blur especially when the subjects are people?
hope you can enlighten me!!
[...] Pictures from a Paper Cutter's studio on China | Gavin Gough … Jun 28, 2011 … However, they're actually incredibly intricate paper cuttings, cut painstakingly from red paper and … [...]
I have seen quite a few paper cutting skill in my life, but never i have witness characters from Chinese folklore, especially such a big format. This would be a skill that requires years of practice and passion.