Fields of hope & prosperity

The National Photography Exhibition Fields of Hope－Poverty Alleviation and Well-off Society Sharing organized by the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, the National Museum of China and the Chinese Photographers Association opened recently at the National Museum, exhibiting about 180 works by nearly 150 photographers in different periods.

Over the years, the vast number of photographers and grassroots front-line poverty alleviation officials across the country have gone deep into their lives, rooted in the people, and personally participated in the specific work of poverty alleviation. They have vividly recorded the great historical practice of poverty alleviation and demonstrated and reflected the great achievements in the course of the comprehensive construction of a well-off society. The power of photography lies in the metaphor, for it captures our minds more than we capture the subject.

Photography is one of the truly new forms of journalism to come along. Advanced technology makes the image production, store and spread possible, and thus the photographers can resort to the modern visual images as their creation material, expression instrument and art forms.

The exhibition cleverly uses the contrast between the old and the new to represent changes brought by economic development. It includes both classic works by well-known photographers and new works by freshmen photographers. It is intuitive by reflecting the emotions, destiny and contrast of the ordinary people. It vividly shows the life changes and spiritual outlook of the masses of people who have been lifted out of poverty. In order to highlight this contrast of changes, some images in the exhibition are presented in black and white and color respectively.

The exhibition coincides with an important moment when the comprehensive victory of poverty alleviation and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China intersect. The works on display are the joint effort of photographers and grassroots front-line poverty alleviation workers across the country. The exhibition is divided into two parts: tackling tough problems and realizing dreams.

Poverty alleviation in industry, employment, relocation, education and culture is the main focus, and it also covers a wide range of topics including the diversity of different ethnic groups, regions and groups. Through the comparison of the new and old, the exhibition highlights the model figures who are fighting on the front-line of poverty alleviation. The design of the exhibition format strives to achieve a diversified and multi-dimensional visual presentation, which better promotes the integration of ideological and artistic senses.

When the goal of poverty alleviation was put forward in 2012, and the goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way entered a key period, there were 832 impoverished counties nationwide, with 98.99 million people living in poverty. Most of the 128,000 impoverished villages were located in remote areas with harsh natural environments, remote transportation, and relatively depleted resources.

In order to improve people's livelihood and strengthen supervision and management of issues affecting people's well-being, government officials at all levels and grassroots organizations have been working hard, and the whole society has been mobilized to do everything possible to make the people in poverty-stricken areas financially secure.

The construction of China's new rural harmonious economy needs a complete set of preferential policy support including education, employment, medical care, basic pension plans and housing policies. The exhibition features some of the pivotal moments in the battle against poverty alleviation.

From intensive agriculture to modern agriculture, from subsistence to a well-off society, the tremendous changes that have taken place in rural China in the past few decades may be more clearly seen when the scale effect holds sway in the next decade.

Twenty years ago, we were proud of solving the food problem for more than one billion people. Today we celebrate the complete elimination of absolute poverty. Changes are cumulative and gradual, but historical memory is being preserved and accumulated into feats of progress.