SAUVIN, Thomas (ed). Silvermine. [London]: (Archive of Modern Conflict, 2013).

'WITNESS THE BIRTH OF POST-SOCIALIST CHINA'
EDITION OF 200

SAUVIN, Thomas (ed).
Silvermine.
[London]: (Archive of Modern Conflict, 2013).

5 vols. (104 x 73 mm). Each volume contains 20 c-type photographs in card mounts, accordion-bound in printed paper-covered boards, each volume in a different colour, each housed in a separate paper-covered board slipcases in imitation of covers, titled in silver and white. Each volume signed and dated by Sauvin. Fine.

First edition of 200. Silvermine contains a total of 100 photographs made from negatives salvaged by Thomas Sauvin from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing, where they had been sent to be filtered for their silver nitrate content. They offer a unique photographic portrait of the Chinese capital and the lives of its inhabitants, over a period of twenty years, from 1985, when silver film came into widespread use in China, up until 2005 when digital photography came to the fore. Each volume focuses on a different Each album focuses on a different theme: the Blue album contains photographs of TVs and Fridges; the Green album is themed One and Two; the Orange album is called Marilyn and Ronald; the Pink album shows Party and Transvestites; and the Yellow album depicts Leisure and Work.

Between 2009 and 2013, Beijing-based collector Sauvin amassed, archived and edited more than half a million negatives that had been destined for destruction. Through these discarded snapshots taken by anonymous Chinese people, we can witness the birth of post-Socialist China.

 

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