Real Dreams

For Real Dreams I immersed myself in the Chinese news cycle for six years. The photobook starts with a century old quote in which writer J.R. Chitty explains that China, within the Western mind, is choked with the most ‘ludicrous incongruities’ that need to be assimilated before one can come close to understanding the country.
 
The photographs provide an exceptional wide-range of visual incongruities taken all over the most populous and fastest changing nation on earth. From a robotic bartender, full-automatic pet dryer, to alien whiskey salesman, the book gives a wholly original and humorous insight into present-day China on the basis of this absurd facade. Recurring themes in the work are the eager embrace of technology, the changing political climate and the malleability of photojournalism.

Photography: Ruben Lundgren
Text: Marije Vlaskamp