Urs Boegli - Photography

Travel Photography with an Artistic Touch...

Mr Tien...

I participated in the 2010 collective exhibition at Nyon's Focale' photo gallery whose topic was "Rencontres" (Encounters) with the contribution 'Mr. Tien, Bamboo Man of Chongqing.'

Mr. Tien is one of the several thousand men (and a few women) working as a porter in the hilly 30 million mega-city of Chongqing in central China. But unlike most of his peers, he is also an a model and an artist. He started posing in drawing classes at Chiongqing's famous Sichuan Institute of Fine Arts, and after having watched students draw and paint for several years, and having built a network among teachers and resident artists, he considered himself qualified to paint and started to do so. While he is one of many deprived of the chance of an education during the troubles years of the Cultural Revolution, he has made up for with his three current jobs, porter, model and painter. As a result, he can afford to send his own children to the university.

Mr. Tien, Bamboo Man of Chongqing (Expo Focale 2010)