Yunnan's 'Kodak Moments'

The Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle today has a review of the new exhibit of 51 photographs now on display at the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film in Rochester.

All of the photos were taken by villagers, themselves, in rural Yunnan Province -- although none had ever seen a camera before.

"About 250 farmers, herders, fishermen and others learned how to use Kodak point-and-shoot cameras in a unique project aimed at protecting their region — the most biologically diverse on the planet.

Each month, they received a fresh roll of film and set about capturing the most important events in their everyday lives. Women and men had an equal place behind the viewfinders, unusual in these patriarchal communities.

From the 50,000 images they produced in 2002, 51 were selected for the exhibit. The Photovoice project was supported by the Chinese government, Eastman Kodak Co. and The Nature Conservancy, an international group that protects ecologically important lands."

The show is titled "Voices From South of the Clouds." It will be open to the public in upstate New York through May 28. Then it will become one of Kodak's "traveling exhibitions" available for booking in communities anywhere.

Of the exhibit, staff writer Stuart Low says:

"This touring exhibit is particularly strong in showing centuries-old agricultural and cultural activities in the remote province, which borders Burma, Laos and Vietnam. We see villagers preparing Tibetan butter tea, playing music on a gourd-bamboo pipe and praying to a mountain god.

Some of their trades seem exotic — for example, fishing with leashed cormorants. The fishermen tie a thin rope around the diving bird's neck, allowing it to swallow small fish but not the larger ones, which the fishermen take for themselves.

A more panoramic image depicts 25-year-old Kang Wenming herding sheep on a mountain, high above a bank of luminous purple clouds.

Other activities strike an unexpected modern note. Villagers strum ancient instruments while watching color television or grow native winter vegetables in a state-of-the-art greenhouse.

The spectacular backdrop to these scenes is the region's mountains, forests and headwaters of four major rivers. This is home to rare species such as snow leopards, golden monkeys and black-necked cranes. About 3 million villagers live here, including 15 different ethnic groups.

All of the photos selected are beautifully composed, often with crisp detail and lively color. They are accompanied by the villagers' comments on the scenes."

The unusual project was organized by The Nature Conservancy as part of its Yunnan Great River Project, designed to protect the unique environment of "one of Earth's richest biodiversity hotspots."

For more information or to reserve an exhibition for your community, simply email the Eastman Museum.