Qian Jin

The thing I love best about Fotofest is that it’s truly an international festival. Mia and I were fortunate to be there to review portfolios again. I’ve been thinking about Qian Jin, a Chinese photographer whose images are so quiet, they could have easily floated by, unnoticed. I wanted to hold on to look at them a bit longer.

Corner, a series of delicate pinhole images, invites me into stillness. Pinhole is a slow process, and I feel that here. It’s like I’ve been looking at this chair, at this curtain, for several unblinking minutes. Small household details become little marvels worth examining. These items are not from my life, and yet I recognize them; I appreciate something vulnerable in the way that they’re shared.

The Chinese Pines in Jin’s series, Pines, are haunting, undulating things. They arch towards the edges, testing the confines of their circles. They are alive and raging, but their sounds are muffled, as if in snow globes.

-Lisa W.