The Inspiring Yellow River

On July 12， 2014， Chinese photographer Zhang Kechun won the Discovery Award at the 45th Les Rencontres d’Arles Festival in France for his series， The Yellow River.

Inspired by renowned writer Zhang Chengzhi’s novel The River in the North， Zhang Kechun traveled up and down the Yellow River for four years to record life and landscapes on the waterway dubbed the “mother river of the Chinese nation.”

Many photographers enjoy capturing scenes along journeys. Zhang began photographing the Yellow River in 2009. Setting out from Kenli County， Shandong Province， where the Yellow River empties into the sea， he trekked through a dozen provinces and autonomous regions including Henan， Shanxi， Shaanxi， Inner Mongolia， Ningxia， Gansu， Sichuan， and Qinghai before finally reaching the source of the river in the Bayan Har Mountains. Armed with an old-fashioned camera and collapsible bicycle， he visited one or two provinces each time. There， he recorded not only topographical changes of the Yellow River but also the traditional lifestyles of the people living along it. “Most of the time， we forget our past，” declares Zhang.“I try to recall it. Over millennia， Chinese people living along the Yellow River developed a brilliant farming civilization， which is the deepest root of Chinese culture.”

Despite the arrival of modern civilization brought by the country’s rapid economic development， many people along the Yellow River still retain their traditional lifestyles. Zhang met an 80-year-old craftsman selling clay figurines by the Yellow River daily in Jinan， Shandong Province. In a Ningxia desert， he witnessed people diverting water from the river to irrigate the desert， banging the pipe from time to time when it got plugged by sand. In Qinghai， he saw trucks loaded with gravel for new roads rolling across the plateau.

“The Yellow River is peaceful and quiet， nurturing those living along it across generations，”he notes. “The tide of commerce gave local people hopes of riches， but it is also washing away their traditional culture.” Zhang would prefer the river inspire enough hope in local residents.