From Canton to Guangzhou

Pete James, custodian of Birmingham Library’s legendary photographic archive, sends through info of From Canton to Guangzhou, part of Birmingham’s China Festival running through this year at BM&AG.

This exhibition presents the work of two photographers who have made very different visual records of Birmingham’s Sister City in China. It contrasts the photographs of buildings and street scenes taken in the historic city of Canton (now known as Guangzhou) by the European photographer Felice Beato in 1860 with those of the contemporary Chinese photographer Xu Peiwu (1997 – 2007), whose work witnesses the dynamic change during the urbanization and rise of Pearl River New City in Guangzhou.

The exhibition runs from 3 May to 10 August at BMAG with the official opening on Thursday 8 May. Invite only, by the looks of things, so if you wanna go contact kath.leahy [at] birmingham.gov.uk, tel: 0121 303 8775.

Probably more interesting than hobnobbing in the Round Room is a seminar in the afternoon of the 8th at 2pm at BIAD, Margaret Street with Pete, Dr Jiang Jiehong (Director, Centre for Chinese Visual Arts, BIAD), photographer Xu Peiwu and Cheng-Hsuan Kao (PhD Candidate, Kings College London). Here’s the flyer (PDF).