Ma Kang is a Nanjing–based photographer born in the 1960s. His photographs convey the singular experience of China’s social and economic upheaval through the eyes of the minority Hui people. 

As a child, along with older generations and his own contemporaries, Ma was fascinated by Tian’anmen, his interest fostered by the descriptions of grand towers and gateways that he encountered in books. Under the weight of centuries of tradition as well as contemporary illusions of grandeur, he became lost in a mist of confusion and contradiction.

Ma believes that China’s recent economic developments and the erosion of traditional culture have infiltrated the city walls of Tian’anmen: his latest series shown above, Forbidden City (2008), seeks to engage with the question of how the individual can feel and comprehend a changing society. His images of Tian’anmen Square were shot with a 35mm film camera. He took between 20 and 60 exposures of each scene and aligned them, creating an impressionist painter effect without any digital imaging.

 

In 2005 Ma was the recipient of the BASF ‘Best Young Artist’ award.