Li Qiang

<p><strong><em>Li Qian The Negative Sent to Future</em></strong> is a collection of photographic works by artist Li Qiang, taken between the 1980s and 2020s. It includes three series: <em>Northern Homeland, Distant Memories</em>, and <em>City Encounter</em>. Li Qiang''s photographs are predominantly black and white, capturing portraits, cityscapes, rural society, and plateau landscapes against specific cultural and historical backdrops. In his photographic language, Li Qiang maintains an existentialist style: profound yet not oppressive, as if the subjects themselves are speaking, seemingly saying everything, yet saying nothing at all. <em>The Northern Homeland </em>series takes us back to the countryside and wilderness of Northwest China, back to the existential realm of solitary wandering in the wilderness; the <em>Distant Memories </em>series records life under the pure sky of the Southwest Plateau, mostly indistinct silhouettes, as if embraced by the heavens while maintaining an impressionistic distance from them; while the <em>City Encounter </em>series transforms the commonplace things of the city into fresh experiences for the soul, as if the reader themselves has just arrived from the distant countryside, only having caught a fleeting glimpse of the dazzling lights of the big city. The three themes intertwine, leading readers back and forth between the city of real life and the distant spiritual homeland.</p>