The Photographers

The exhibition contains works by talented local photographers living in or near archaeological and cultural sites in China, Colombia, India, Peru, and Turkey. Images from Cambodia and Libya, drawn from the Global Heritage Fund archives, were taken by staffers intimately familiar with these locales and the difficulties they face.

Wang Xiaodong, a native of Pingyao, China, has appreciated art and photography since childhood. His works have appeared in local newspapers, magazines, books and exhibitions. Wang is a member of the Shanxi Province Photography Institute and the Pingyao Photography Institute, and many consider him to be the unofficial photographer of this evocative ancient city.

Pingyao also is represented by Luo Yongjin. Based in Shanghai, he is fascinated by the destruction and reconstruction of Chinese cities, and often focuses on the subtle details that characterize these endangered locales. After portraying great cities like Shanghai and Beijing, now inexorably altered by contemporary building programs, Luo began to photograph smaller centers in the countryside.

Kuanghan Li joined Global Heritage Fund in 2008 as Manager of its China Heritage Program. She oversees the organization’s Pingyao Ancient City and Fujian Tulou projects and is responsible for investigating other China Heritage sites. Han has worked on the Getty Conservation Institute’s collaboration with the Chinese State Administration for Cultural Heritage in Hebei and the Kham Aid Foundation’s conservation efforts in Sichuan. She holds advanced degrees in historic preservation and architecture.

Colombia is depicted by Amado Villafane, an Arhuaco Indian and director of the Zhigoneshi Media and Communications Center at the Gonawindua Tayrona Indigenous Organization in Santa Marta. His photographs and documentary films have been exhibited at the National Museum in Colombia, the Museo Etnológico de la Universidad del Magdalena in Santa Marta, and in 2009 at “Colombia Month” in Paris. Villafane’s local origins provide him with opportunities to candidly portray members of the Tayrona tribe in the remote site of Ciudad Perdida.

Sourav De is an Information Technology entrepreneur who is passionate about India’s myriad peoples and their rich architectural heritage. Based in Kolkata, India, but born in Bangladesh, he was given a camera by his father as a child and this sparked a lifelong passion for photography. De is interested in archaeological sites and the local groups living near them. His images seek to identify cultural continuity from the ancient world while also depicting challenges that confront contemporary groups in a rapidly developing country.

Jose Luis “Pepe” Cruzado Coronel is from the Peruvian regional capital of Huaraz where his family is involved in numerous businesses. He was an elementary school teacher before becoming involved with anthropological and archaeological projects. Cruzado lives in the town of Chavín de Huántar and works in photography and video. He is gaining notoriety for his skill in revealing subtleties about the activities of Andean peoples.

Images from Kars and vicinity in eastern Turkey were taken by Cavit Erginsoy. This young photographer from Istanbul has traveled extensively in Turkey, North Korea, Iraq, Russia and Europe to capture images chronicling the lives of ordinary people. His grandfather served as the governor of Kars Province in the early Turkish Republic. Cavit has a degree in photojournalism from the University of Westminster and currently lives in London.

Photographs of Banteay Chhmar, Cambodia are from GHF’s archives and the majority of these were taken by Jeff Morgan, Stefaan Poortman, and Dan Thompson. Cyrene, Libya is represented by Serenella Ensoli, the GHF Cyrene Project Director and head of the Missione Archeologica Italiana in Cirene of the Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli. John Hurd and other GHF staffers also contributed photographs of this important Greco-Roman site.