Sleeping on the Street

"From the Terminal Station, Guangzhou 1997" #68 ©Toru Ukai

"From the Terminal Station, Guangzhou 1997" #13 ©Toru Ukai

Guangzhou is located just south of the Tropic of Cancer and the weather is hot and humid.

I found a lot of people sleeping outdoors or on the bare ground in the middle of 1990’s. Natives did so for escaping the heat in their rooms and the migrants did in the same way until they got jobs and accommodations somewhere in the city. Everything about it looked so natural and practical that I was never surprised. It seemed that they only concentrated on living a normal life or surviving. They did it without keeping up appearances. It's one of the most difficult things for us, the Japanese. I learned a lot from the naked realities of people’s daily lives there.

You can see other images related to the article in the project "From the Terminal Station, Guangzhou 1997".

The Views of “Nowhere”

"From the Terminal Station, Guangzhou 1997" #54 ©Toru Ukai

When I was absorbed in photographing night scenes of Guangzhou, to tell the truth, I was a manager of a Japan-China joint venture of preschool education. I worked at a clean office in a skyscraper during the day, then I took a picture in the chaotic station square or at a damp street corner at night, and finally I went to bed at a hotel suite with very good service.

In those days Chinese migrants were pouring into such a metropolis as Guangzhou like an avalanche in pursuit of better life. The area in and around the terminal station was always incredibly crowded. A huge number of people stayed in the station square for days until they could get jobs in the city. I couldn’t help feeling a deep sense of contradiction. The difference between my comfortable life and the chaotic situation outside was too big to bury. So every picture taken on the street looked like a dream or a nightmare, though I myself watched and photographed it…

24 years have passed since then and those pictures still remain dreamlike for me in a different sense. I’m puzzled how rapidly and boldly China has changed into a superpower. I probably can’t take such a picture again in Guangzhou that is among the three largest cities in China. It seems that now the pictures just show me the views of “nowhere”.

No matter what I photograph, a picture essentially comes from the external world that I don’t really understand. And as soon as I photograph something, the picture can tell me only the past that I cannot touch at all. A picture is so mysterious in spite of the clear appearance. It drifts eternally on the sea of indefinite and unknowable meanings.

All the best for you in 2021!

"From the Terminal Station, Guangzhou 1997" #50 ©Toru Ukai

"From the Terminal Station, Guangzhou 1997" #52 ©Toru Ukai

It was 24 years ago, in 1997, that I started my photography in Guangzhou, China. 1997 is the year of the Ox in Chinese astrology and 2021 is so, too. At the beginning of 2021, I show you some of my early pictures from my film archives, which were taken in 1997.

Needless to say, China has dramatically changed since then. I’ve gradually changed, too. Now I’m 60. If the pictures surprised you, your surprise should come from the changes of China and me myself, that is, my photography. In those days I regarded a motion blur or even a camera shake as proof of our lives. I thought it was a way to breathe new life into a rigid and dead image without life and time. Besides, seemingly, the blurred photos show that I was still young and lively enough then.

Well, now we’re in the third wave of COVID-19 in Japan. It’s not so easy to take a new picture on the street. Probably I continue to dig up 'hidden treasures' to me for the time being ;) Some of them will be added to the project album “From the Terminal Station, Guangzhou 1997”. Just enjoy, my friends!