Xu Yong. 18% Gray / My Friends

Xu Yong explores the possibilities of photography like almost no other contemporary Chinese photographer. For his series 18% GRAY (2009) and MY FRIENDS (2020), he constructed a ten-centimeter-long metal ring, which was then affixed between the camera and the lens, causing the camera to lose focus so that the images are blurred. Xu Yong used this method to photograph his close friends and important places from his memories. He portrays, for example, the alleyway in Shanghai where he lived as a child, the Huangpu river, in which the ashes of his grandfather were scattered, and Tiananmen Square in Beijing. This publication is a visual autobiography which at the same time allows Xu Yong to demonstrate his great sensitivity for the realities of Chinese society.