2008-08-25 08:59:27 - Photojournalist Tom Carter's 600-page CHINA: Portrait of a People captures diversity of 33 Chinese provinces

Beijing, China - As the 2008 Summer Olympics come to a close, global pundits are discoursing on China's future: Who are the Chinese? How do they live, work and play? How much do we really know about the 1.3 billion people who inhabit this vast country?

For those who prefer art over talk shows and books over blogs, these questions are

visually answered in CHINA: Portrait of a People, the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author.

Tom Carter, a San Francisco City native, spent 2 years backpacking 56,000 kilometers (35,000 miles) across the vast Middle Kingdom to visit over 200 cities and villages, including some of the most remote locations in the country: from the steaming jungles of Xishuangbanna in Yunnan to the frozen banks of the Amur River in Manchuria. En route, he discovered and photographed immense geographic and ethnic diversity.

'What the photographs herein reveal is that China is not just one place, one people, but 33 distinct regions populated by 56 different ethnicities, each with their own languages, customs and lifestyles,' writes China travel expert Tom Carter in his introduction. 'It is my most sincere hope that this book unites the people immortalized in its pages - Tibetan pilgrims and Beijing scholars, Uyghur Muslims and Shanghai bankers, Hong Kong millionaires and Shanxi miners - in celebration of their glorious cultures.

Publisher Pete Spurrier of Blacksmith Books remarked: There are several books of photography already on the market that focus on China's history or famous sites, but CHINA: Portrait of a People is the first of this scope by a single author devoted to Chinese PEOPLE! Tom Carter has single-handedly photographed almost every aspect of life humanity across the PRC.'

CHINA: Portrait of a People includes a forward by celebrated Chinese authoress Anchee Min (Red Azalea, Empress Orchid) who says 'Tom Carter is an extraordinary photographer whose powerful work captures the heart and soul of the Chinese people.' Shanghai rebel writer Mian Mian (Candy, La la la) writes the epilogue: 'Tom Carter's photo book is an honest and objective record of the Chinese and our way of life'

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CHINA: Portrait of a People, by Tom Carter
Genre: Travel / Photography / Art / China
ISBN: 978-988-99799-42
Size: 15cm x 15cm, soft cover, 640 pages, 800 full color images, with maps of each province
Published: Summer 2008 by Blacksmith Books, Hong Kong, in association with Haven Books
Price: US$35.95

www.tomcarter.org
www.blacksmithbooks.com/9789889979942.htm
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj1tqIg1SBU