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If today’s world is saturated with digital images, the Sichuanese photographer Adou 阿斗 (born in 1973 in Sichuan) prefers to disregard this paradigm shift so that to deliberately use analogue photography. Adou is behind and in front of the camera. He travels across Chinese provinces with the aim of finding introspection, becoming more optimistic, and putting reality in a new dimension.

While Samalada (2006) offers atemporal visions of his native place, his series Adou explores several hinterland provinces, such as Gansu, Mongolia, and Qinghai among others. These photographs evoke the encounter of man with nature. The artist plays with the textural effects of desert lands, the waves caused by the chemicals reaction, and uses rather expressionist angles, which all seem to create an almost mystical atmosphere. His photographs also demonstrate that the body and the performance seem to be still at the heart of things in Chinese contemporary art.