Ian Teh: Two Decades Photographing China's Transformation

British Malaysian photographer Ian Teh has spent more than three decades photographing the relationship between economic development, environmental change and human life, and now returns to the China archive that began his career. In this Eyeshot 50mm interview, British Malaysian documentary photographer Ian Teh talks with Lucrezia Bonarota about growing up between Malaysia, China and Britain, the 1995 journey that turned photography into a possible life, and the long, patient years spent documenting China during its most dramatic transformation. He speaks about photographing progress without celebrating or condemning it, the migrant workers behind projects of staggering scale, editing people into silhouettes to reveal the machine that moved them, and why a photograph is strongest when it leaves room for reflection. His new limited edition with Eyeshot, Undercurrents – Reframed: China 1999-2008, reopens that archive and reinterprets it from the present. Follow Eyeshot for more street and documentary photography.