An eye for common folks

Images from the streets of Hefei make an amateur photographer's community come to life on the Internet. Zhang Lei and Zhu Lixin catches up with this netizen's favorite.

Girls sip soft drinks as they smile down from billboards. A migrant worker squats down, laughing as he examines his text messages. A fat security guard on a tricycle stretches to suck his yogurt from a container, his tight clothes bulging against the buttons. A lean-looking pancake vendor swiftly finishes his masterpiece.

Liu Tao, the street photographer, is enthralled by these images that flit past his eyes every day in Hefei, Anhui province. The photos of grassroots daily life that result present a sense of conflict, which have won applause from netizens. Through Liu's camera lens, those seemingly transient scenes of everyday life take on a more permanent nature.