Down to Earth: Ancient Towns and Villages of China - A Photography Exhibition by Kemin Dong

02/07/2016 – 02/25/2016
Organized and Sponsored by Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University
Power Art Gallery of William Paterson University

The ancient towns and villages of China are alive with an atmosphere of peace, tranquility, and purity that reflect a harmonious cohabitation of man and nature, where the most ordinary country people live. They carry on a lifestyle of their ancestors, full of inherited wisdom, traditional culture and values. It is the spiritual homeland of the Chinese. It is also a place where conflicts arise between tradition and modernity, between art and science, and between conservatism and innovation, due, to a great extent, to the speed of social development.

Mr. Kemin Dong, Director of Chinese Ancient Town Institute in Xian, China, directs his professional attention towards these ancient towns and villages with his camera, capturing the vanishing structures and lives of people, recording the endangered history and emerging society at the same time, in a “down to earth” fashion. In the past 17 years, he has visited more than 200 of his beloved towns and villages and has taken tens of thousands of photographs of them, all reflecting his professional persistence, creative sincerity and inspiring perception, are a feast for our imagination. Mr. Dong’s photographs have been selected by national exhibitions and received numerous Excellence and Golden awards. He was awarded Excellence in Photography by Chinese National Academy of Arts, by China Art Photography Society, and by Chinese Photographers, the top Chinese photography magazine.

On display here in this exhibition are 26 works of photography by Mr. Kemin Dong.

Zhiyuan Cong
Professor and Director
Center for Chinese Art at William Paterson University