Gao Shan is a Chinese photographer who was adopted eight days after his birth. The project The Eighth Day, whose book is published today by the editions Imageless, was born from his desire to get closer to his adoptive mother. Although they share an apartment of about seventy square meters, the photographer recognizes that his relationship with his mother was surprisingly distant. It is characterized by coldness and indifference, according to the photographer’s epilogue. His mother performs the basic duties and duties of a parent, but without emotional expression. Only recently did he begin to think of her as more than just a presence in his life. Gao obsessively documents the daily details of her mother’s life and the space they share, focusing on details such as a half eaten pomegranate, a boiling kettle, and her mother’s broad back. In his series, he uses the camera not for cold observation, but as an active tool in their relationship. The resulting images are strange but intimate visual fragments of a relationship that are inexplicably moving. This intimate and emotional photographic document, which appeals to both the heart and the mind of the spectator, imposed itself a few days ago as the winner of the Prize for the first photo book of the year 2019 awarded by Paris Photo – Aperture Foundation. It is now also part of the Fondation Cartier collection for contemporary art. Published in a limited edition of 500 copies, the book is now available on the online store Imageless Chinese editions.
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