2021. 05. 29

“History of Life” is a photography book published by Cai Dongdong and Imageless. The 400 photos included in this book was selected out of 600,000 photographs from the artist’s collection. Most photos capture the daily lives of ordinary Chinese people spanning nearly 100 years, from the early Republic of China to the end of the 1990s. The artist captures the growth and developments of people from these three generations then presents them in three chapters. Each chapter encapsulates the daily lives of ordinary people in different historical periods. The artist selected the photographs based on his intuition and the visual experience each photo provides.

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If the artist is the leading creator of the book, then the publisher is like a “project manager” who had to find a suitable designer and collaborator. The publisher, Ni Liang and the designer Guo Xiao of “History of Life” are university classmates who share the same love for art books and a similar understanding of particular works. “History of Life” took two years to complete. Over the two-year creation process, the artist, publishers and designers went through constant discussion, adjustment and alteration to decide on the central theme and concepts of the book.