CHINA Portrait of a People

**MEDIA ATTENTION** “Getting a full picture of China – a vast country with an enormous population, a place that is experiencing sweeping cultural and economic changes – is, of course, impossible. But Tom Carter comes close. … It’s a remarkable book, compact yet bursting with images that display the diversity of a nation of 56 ethnic groups." — **San Francisco Chronicle** “Part of the strength of this book is its independent spirit. It’s not a travel guide showing China dressed in its Sunday best, or a photojournalistic approach documenting the underbelly of the country, but rather a peek at the sights Carter has seen and a corrective to both the glowing promotional images and negative Western media shots that we are all familiar with. For instance, if you were to make a pilgrimage to Mount Tai for the sunrise you would likely be one of many thousands doing the same and this is the image Carter presents – hordes of people dressed in green army overcoats – not the typical picture postcard view." — **China Daily** “In China: Portrait of a People, Tom Carter shows us that there are actually dozens of Chinas. The American photojournalist spent two years traveling 35,000 miles through every province of China by bus, boat, train, mule, motorcycle, and on foot.” — **Christian Science Monitor** **CNNGo** stopped Tom Carter before his talk at Shanghai’s Glamour Bar to get some insight into his “beautiful and groundbreaking 600-page photo collection”. "With the international release of his book this summer, the rest of the world can now tag along on Carter’s eye-opening journey through China’s biggest cities and far-flung regions and discover what China really looks like." CHINA: Portrait of a People is the cover story for **Shanghai Talk Magazine**. "It must have been a daunting task for Tom Carter to set out to photograph all 33 provinces and regions of China, including Hong Kong and Macau. But capturing the diversity of its 56 ethnic groups is a remarkable achievement ... There are a number of shots in this book that could easily grace the pages of National Geographic ... Unless you want to undertake your own two-year trek through some of the mainland's most difficult terrain to take your own shots, this is a study well worth having on your bookshelf." — Steve Cray, **South China Morning Post** "Carter has shown us just how easy it is. Just get on the bus, Gus. Buy a ticket, ride from town to town, chat to people and take their picture. I have traveled many of same roads in the same way and this photo-book captures the feel, the color, the smell of China better than most others I have seen. ... His subjects are casual, un-posed, unrehearsed. He manages to achieve an extraordinary intimacy, not just with cute kids and young women, but with worshippers at a mosque, with a miner caked in coal dust changing his clothes at the end of a shift. He clearly must have considerable charm to have achieved these candid snaps of people who are normally shy of having their picture taken. But as he says, and people who travel the country soon find out, ordinary Chinese people are extraordinarily warm with foreigners." — John Sexton, **china.org.cn** "In these 900 images, Carter shows just how diverse the Chinese really are, with their different facial features, skin hues, lifestyles, cultures and occupations. What ensues is an engaging and enlightening photo essay of 1.3 billion people." — Ferina Natasya Abdul Aziz, **Asian Geographic Passport** "China is the in-your-face bright lights, neon signs and bars in the cities. It is the marketplace of fresh produce and livestock in the smallest villages. The movers and shakers in the high-rises of Shanghai and the pilgrim prostrate on the road as he moves, wormlike, towards Lhasa. China is all of this and more than these, as Carter shows. China is the sum of its people's dreams and hopes and heartaches and joy and pain. There are many, many facets to China that most of us will never be able to see. For mos