China's story, captured through a camera lens

In July 1987, 32 years ago this month, my time in China was relatively short. Much of what I saw was new to me, often unfamiliar — so I photographed anything that appeared interesting. It became a mad dash to get as much out as possible of a short stay.But living in Guangzhou for a year in 1992 was a different experience. There were plenty of opportunities to walk, look and more carefully photograph scenes. Even in 1992 Guangzhou was a large city, much larger than others I had lived in or visited.

My initial train journey traveling north to south proved there was considerable beauty in China, much more than the few images I had previously seen of the country. As the train steadily moved south, passing into more tropical lands, I would have loved to spend several days in the passing scenes with my camera.

Guangzhou did have much to fascinate me. The beautiful public parks, the constant movement of boat traffic along the Pearl River, the narrow commercial streets of the older areas. I could have spent the whole year in that city but I had a restlessness and need to explore, to discover more of China. There was so much beauty to take in even on day or weekend trips, yet compared to the rest of China it was a relatively small area. The vastness of the country was becoming apparent to me.