CHINA: Portrait of a People, a photo book by Tom Carter
Reviewed by Han Liang

Can anyone tell me how many roads there are in this world? For some, there is only one road, the one they choose to go. They follow someone’s footsteps and become someone else’s footsteps. For others, there are many roads, all to Rome, to fame, to wealth, and finally to death. But for Tom Carter, there is no road. He rarely follows anyone’s footsteps. He makes his own.

Ever since graduation from university, Tom has been a gypsy drifting with camera as his eyes and feet travel the maps. From the self-seeking Latino culture trip in Mexico, Central-America and Cuba to the heart-and-soul-seeking trip to China and the rest of Asia (he hits the ground running for India in the coming two years), he has always been on the road. No matter the county road which took him to the images of striking poverty and hardship of a nineteenth century wasteland or the city street which led him to the avant-garde artists’ portrait of an era of post-modernity. It’s a long way around, far away from the main street.

He also left some footsteps, by himself and for himself, which turned out to his first book CHINA: Portrait of a People. “Page-turner” is probably a cliché describing every new book and for that reason I won’t use it to demolish Tom’s book. You may be disappointed by his debut show, if you are looking for National-Geography-style landscapes in China like the Great Wall, Three Gorges and Terra-Cotta Warriors, for Tom is neither a landscapist nor a typical photographer. A photographer of his kind captures the faces of Chinese people—probably every sense of humanity—tears, smiles, gaiety, gloom, pride, prejudice, agony, embarrassment, worry and all the other forms of human emotions.

I found some interesting comments online on Tom’s photos and his book. A seemingly professional photographer asked: these feel like above average holiday photos taken with a point and shoot. While the composition in some of his photos is good, where’s the sharpness, color, depth of field, and clever use of light? Immediately one of Tom’s defenders fought back: “Don’t be the snob! Depth of field and clever use of light does not a good photographer make. I think it is the whole point of this book: an ordinary guy with an ordinary camera who did a very un-ordinary thing: travel to all provinces in China and take pictures of it all. So you snob photographers can go back to your photo club and discuss depth of field. I’m going to travel like this guy! ”

China has so many people with lives so varied and a history so rich and complex that no outsiders can fully grasp—nor perhaps even insiders. But Tom, to some extent, ended this mission impossible with great triumph. Therefore Tom deserves a proud defense and faithful fans. To be honest as Chinese I feel ashamed when I finished reading Tom’s book. It’s partially from him that I want to understand the real China, a China that might be hard to imagine even for Chinese. In his book, I have finally had the chance to pass again and again through the country I live in, to explore its corners and secrets, to look into the eyes of those people who were only passed by chance.

People said Tom’s 640-page book of photography CHINA: Portrait of a People is the most comprehensive book of photography on modern China ever published by a single author, but I’m more curious about our hero behind such an epic. As far as I know, Tom is a foreigner who barely speaks Chinese. Yet those people, no matter the showy monks in Henan, the hot pub DJ in Beijing, the guileless coal miner in Shanxi, the sober pilgrim in Tibet, or the angel-like Uigur girl in Xinjiang, they all allowed him to shot in an incredibly short distance, some were even face-to-face. Why? Because they fully trusted him, and he purely “felt the connection between himself and Chinese people”. (This sentence by Tom Carter is a thousand times more powerful than that made by President Obama to President Hu)

American writer Joseph Epstein once said, “We decide what is important and what is trivial in life. We decide so that what makes us significant is either what we do or what we refuse to do. And as we decide and choose so are our lives formed. ” That’s true with Tom. He made choices, not comprises. He decided what was important to him rather than letting others to point it out for him. He endured the unendurable, like sleeping in flop-houses and on bus station floors throughout his 2-year adventure across China, but still refused to submit his photos of a riot in Hunan to the local police. And now he is making another decision that may form his life in the coming few years, which is to backpack in India, a country where Slumdog Millionaire is more than just an Oscar Award winning film.

He “intends to photograph all 35 states/territories and traverse as much of India’s 3.3 million square kilometers as possible. It may take a couple of years, but I won't rest until I have created the definitive India photo book, something any single author has yet to do.” You see? That’s the Tom I know.

I’ve seen him only once on a chilly winter afternoon last January in Beijing. He told me he was leaving, “I’ve seen everything and done everything in China. I want to experience more of the world. I thrive on new experience...that’s my nature.” The 35-year-old laughed like a child, with his baseball cap, T-shirt, jacket and pants which had accompanied him during his two-year novel-like life in China.

It’s been several years now, since he left the political life in Washington which he had so deeply believed in, and now he’s getting back on the road again. Maybe someday he’ll settle down, but for now he still has to find his way. There are so many people in this world. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. And there are still others like Tom who takes the long way around, becomes a legend himself.

不走寻常路
书评《中国：人物肖像》汤姆•卡特

有谁告诉我，世上有多少条路？对有些人而言，世上只有一条路，他们选择走的路。他们顺着前人的足迹，最终变成后人的路标。对其他人来说，条条大路通向罗马，通向声名，最终通向死亡。对汤姆•卡特而言，世上没有路。他从不遵循任何人的脚步。他踏出自己的脚印。

从大学毕业，汤姆就成了流浪的吉普赛。镜头是眼睛的延伸，双脚在地图上行走。 不论是墨西哥，中美洲和古巴的自我发现之旅，还是到中国的心灵发现之旅，或是他即将开始的亚洲之旅（他已经开始了为期两年的印度之旅），汤姆一直在路上。乡间小路带他走入19世纪的贫瘠与苦楚，城市大道引他进入先锋艺术家的后现代画作。不论如何，他总是另辟蹊径，远离主流。

走在路上，他也留下了自己的脚印，那是他的第一本书《中国：人物肖像》。我不想用陈腐之词夸赞汤姆的新书，因为那没有实际意义。如果你中意《国家地理》那类中国风景图片，比如长城，三峡，兵马俑，那你对他的书多半会失望。汤姆不是风景摄影师，也不是典型摄影师。他自成一家，专注于记录人们的面孔，和面孔之下的人性之光，无论泪水，笑容，欢乐，沉郁，骄傲，偏见，痛苦，尴尬，忧虑。

网络上，我发现一些关于汤姆的图片与新书的有趣评论。一位貌似专业的摄影师问道：“这不过就是最普通的假日照，随意拍拍即可。有些照片构图不错，可图片的锐气，色彩，景深和对光的把握哪去了？”汤姆的一位拥护者立即“回击”：干嘛自命不凡？景深和对光的妙用就能成就优秀摄影师？这本书的精髓在此：一个普通人，带着平常的相机，却做了很不平常的一件事：游遍中国的每个省，用相机记录旅程。你们这些自以为是的摄影师尽可以在摄影俱乐部讨论什么景深，我可要像汤姆一样四处旅行了。

中国人口如此众多，生活方式如此多样，历史积淀如此深厚，几乎没有外来者可全面把握，就连中国人自己也很难做到。但在某种程度上，汤姆成功完成了这项不可能的任务。他理所应当得到拥护者的支持和维护。坦率而言，作为中国人，看过汤姆的书我感到惭愧。正是通过他的书我才想要了解真实的中国，一个对中国人来说都很想象的中国。在他的书中，我得以在生活的城市中游走穿梭，探寻它角落中的秘密，仔细观察曾经擦肩而过的人们。

人们说汤姆的摄影集是由单个作者出版、关于当代中国的最全面影集，足足640页厚度。而更让我好奇的是这史诗背后的英雄。据我所知，汤姆只懂一点中文。可他镜头下的人们，无论是表现欲很强的少林和尚，还是火辣的北京酒吧DJ, 不论是一脸朴实的山西矿工，还是天使一般的回族女孩儿，他们都允许汤姆近距离拍照，有时就是面对面。这是为什么？因为他们完全信任汤姆，而汤姆也发自内心地把自己和中国人连在一起。（这句话由汤姆说出来由也许比美国总统奥巴马说给胡锦涛主席更让人信服）

美国作家约瑟夫•爱波斯坦曾说过：“我们自己来决定生活里什么事重如泰山，什么事轻如鸿毛。我们这样决定，因而让我们与众不同的正是我们决定去做的，或是我们拒绝去做的。当我们做选择时，我们的生活路径也因此确定。”这话没错。他做选择，而非妥协。他自己决定什么事最重要，而不是让别人告诉他什么最重要。他承受了常人难以承受的两年艰难探索之旅，常常睡在公车站或最便宜的旅店。但他拒绝把自己拍到的湖南骚乱照片交给当地警察。现在，他又做出选择，在印度继续背包客生涯，这选择也将会影响他未来数年的生活路径。在那个国度，《贫民窟里的百万富翁》不仅仅是一部奥斯卡获奖影片。

他“准备走遍印度３５个行政区域，３３０万平方千米土地。也许这要耗费数年时间，但直到我拍出一部像样关于印度的摄影集才会停下来，没有哪个独立作者做过这件事。我就要做那第一个。”你看，这就是我认识的那个汤姆。

我只见过汤姆一次，去年一月，天寒地冻的冬日午后。他告诉我他要走了。“在中国我见过足够风景，做了该做之事。我要体验更多世界。我活在新鲜体验中，那是我的天性。”３５岁的摄影师笑得像个孩子，头戴棒球帽，身穿体恤衫，夹克和裤子，那身行头已经伴他走过两年小说一样的中国之旅。

自他离开曾经深信不疑的政治生活，许多年已倏忽而逝。现在他又回到了路上。也许有一天他会安顿下来，但现在他依然在寻找属于自己的那条路。世上的人有无数。有些生来就非同一般，有些通过努力达到极致，有些人背负希冀达到辉煌。还有一些人，就像汤姆，不走寻常路，而他本身已经成为一个传奇。