From 2017 to 2018, photographer Xu Song took the opportunity to give photography lessons to children in the countryside.
After the project ended, Xu Song often went back to see the children. Their communication has continued from the classroom to the present, and the former fifth graders have grown up, some have entered high school, and some have started working part-time.
This is a set of video stories that have been condensed for six years, and it is also a record of growth.
Lesson 1).There are a thousand possibilities for photography
You are one of them
The place where the children live is called Lan County, which belongs to Luliang City, Shanxi Province. It takes 2 hours to take a train from Taiyuan to Lan County, and another half an hour to reach Yinwan Village, where the child is located. Every time I set off from Beijing to Yinwan Village, it took me nearly a day.
Duan Xiangyun 11 years old Photo taken in 201711
We took more than 30 idle cameras collected from netizens to the local Mingde Primary School to give lectures to more than a dozen children in the fifth grade. I would bring a photographer with me to each class, and after the class, the photographer would give the children an assignment, and after two weeks, we would come back to review everyone's homework and give another lesson.
In the homework, we see many scenes of the children's lives.
Feng Gaiyan was 11 years old in 201712
Zhang Chenru, 11 years old, taken in 201712
Liu Yu, 13 years old, in 2018.
Liu Yu 13 years old Photo taken in 20187
They also photographed a lot of animals.
Duan Xiangyun 12 years old Photo taken in 20184 (**The watermark date is set by default for the camera).
Duan Yanxiang, 12 years old, taken in 20187
Duan Yanxiang, 11 years old, taken in 201711
Duan Yanxiang, 11 years old, taken in 201711
They also filmed a lot of daily life.
Duan Xiangyun 11 years old Photo taken in 201711
Wen Xiuqi 11 years old Photo taken in 201712
Han Jingwen 11 years old Photo taken in 201712
Most of the children are from the village, and the distance to and from school is not long. Some of the children's parents work as farmers for a living, while others work outside the home.
The first time I met these children, I was impressed by their eyes. They sat upright one by one, and when they heard that they were going to give them a photography lesson, they didn't say anything, but their eyes widened.
Zhang Chenru's ** 11 years old was taken in 201712
Duan Xiangyun's photograph of Liu Yu and Zhou Weijie at the age of 11 was taken in 201712
After class, the children showed curiosity about the camera, but they were a little shy, and I still remember it.
The theme of the first class was "There are a thousand possibilities for photography, and you are one of them", which is just right for those who have never touched a camera.
Feng Caiyan 12 years old Photo taken in 20184
Wen Xiuqi 12 years old taken in 20187
We didn't teach the kids any photography skills, we just told them what to shoot, like shooting light, taking shadows. We also told them that they could take pictures of the people around them, the teachers, classmates, and neighbors in the village.
Faced with such a photography class, the children reacted differently. When they turned in their homework, I asked them, "Why are you shooting this?" "None of them are quite able to put it into words.
When I said, "Don't you think the light looks good?" Or do you like to observe animals? They will nod.
Lesson 2).The outside world
Isn't it exciting?
Now, these children have grown taller, and my relationship with them has changed from teacher and student to friend.
Duan Yanxiang was one of the children who took photography classes that year, and although I didn't communicate with her much in the past few years, I met her when I returned to Lanxian in July 2023, when she was in a technical school.
Duan Yanxiang, 12 years old, taken in 2018.
As she entered puberty, she talked a lot to me and shared with me her troubles with her roommates.
I have the impression that the homework of Yanxiang in the fifth grade was particularly good. Nowadays, she has a lot of observations about life, and expresses her feelings about life with the eyes of a teenager.
Duan Yanxiang, 11 years old, taken in 201712
Duan Yanxiang, 12 years old, taken in 20187
When talking to Duan Yanxiang, we talked about another child, her name is Wen Xiuqi, and she also has a younger sister named Wen Xiuyan, and the two sisters are classmates.
Wen Xiuqi 11 years old Photo taken in 201712
Wen Xiuqi 12 years old taken in 20184
When I was in elementary school, my sister Wen Xiuyan always avoided me, so I asked Duan Yanxiang, "Is it because some of your classmates are shy or don't like photography classes very much, so they avoid me?" Duan Yanxiang said: "No, Wen Xiuyan is a child who likes literature and art very much, and she talks to me a lot." Saying that, she showed me the ** of the two people on the phone.
Feng Caiyan and Feng Gaiyan were also a pair of sisters in the class that year.
Feng Caiyan 12 years old Photo taken in 20184
In 2022, Feng Caiyan, who is in her first year of high school, told me that she wanted to be admitted to a good university. Her results are good, but they are not particularly top-notch. At that time, she had already realized that if she couldn't pass the exam, her future path would most likely be to become a teacher in the county or village.
Feng Gaiyan 12 years old Photo taken in 20184
Feng Gaiyan 12 years old Photo taken in 20184
In that elementary school class, some people did not go to high school, some went to technical school, and some did not continue to study. Today, like most of their peers, these children's lives are deeply affected by the internet. Some of them will write copywriting on Kuaishou to earn a little pocket money, and some will write ** online.
When I went to teach the children, I would stay at Liu Yu's house. His elder brother studied auto repair in a technical school, but later did not finish the technical school, and now works as an auto repair in the county seat.
Duan Xiangyun 11 years old Photo taken in 201712 (Xiangyun likes to study the camera, he will adjust different parameters, shoot a variety of effects).
In April 2019, the people of Shanxi Province approved Lan County's withdrawal from poverty-stricken counties.
In the same year, before the end of the project, we held a film festival for the children in Beijing, and some of the children had the opportunity to go to Beijing.
After returning from Beijing, the children's homeroom teacher sent me a WeChat message saying that the children had gained a lot from this trip, going to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, participating in photography exhibitions, and seeing all kinds of things in Beijing.
Feng Gaiyan was also one of the children who went to Beijing, and after returning to Lanxian from Beijing, she gave me a bottle of vinegar, which she said was not delicious.
Lesson 3)I don't want to be there
The children disappear from their lives
Although the project ended in 2018, I still keep in touch with the children in Arashi County. On the one hand, I have feelings for them, and on the other hand, I don't want to disappear from their lives.
Feng Gaiyan 12 years old Photo taken in 20187
I once gave Wen Xiuqi a book called "Flying to Your Mountain", which tells the story of a girl from the United States who changes her fate in a very closed environment.
When I was with them in 2017, I felt like I was back in my childhood. Now when I talk to them, I suddenly find that they can understand some of my frustrations.
For example, it is not easy for me to walk alone in the village with a camera, because the old people in the village will cast uncomfortable eyes. It's a puzzle for an outsider to keep running here.
Once I asked Liu Yu if I wanted to go out together, Liu Yu asked me, "Don't you like to meet those old people?" I was surprised that he would ask that, and he said, "Because that's the way I am." "He explained to me that it wasn't just for me, that he would feel the talk and the eyes as he passed by.
Wen Xiuqi 12 years old taken in 20184
Duan Xiangyun 11 years old Photo taken in 201711
Duan Xiangyun was also one of the children in the class at that time, and he did not study again after graduating from junior high school. Once he and I **, he didn't say anything during the whole process, just opened the **screen for me to see. That day, he returned to Mingde Primary School, where Children's Day activities were being held on the playground.
The reason why he did this was probably because I had attended the previous two Children's Day events, and he wanted to share them with me.
Liu Yu 13 years old Photo taken in 20187
On Children's Day, the children wanted to draw red-faced **, but Liu Yu hid at that time and did not want to be painted, because he gradually became self-conscious, and it also became a sign of his growing up.
Lesson 4)There is no burden to take pictures
What about life?
With its high altitude, Arashi County has cool summers and cold winters. The winter in Lanxian County is composed of a large area of yellow-brown, there are not many trees here, and the children's life here is relatively simple, but the ** taken by the children is very unexpected.
Duan Yanxiang, 11 years old, taken in 2017
Duan Yanxiang, 12 years old, taken in 20187
Liu Yu 13 years old Photo taken in 20187
When children take pictures, they don't think about the composition and the meaning behind it, like the one below with a flame. She probably stared at Mars for a long time and took a picture of it when she thought it was interesting. For them, taking pictures is not a burden.
Feng Gaiyan was 11 years old in 201711
When we first started this project, we did it with a sense of curiosity, not knowing what kind of images these children would take, or what kind of impact photography would have on them.
The reason for this project was to do something outside of the office: to take pictures, to get in touch with children, to escape from city life.
What kind of impact did a photography class in elementary school have on children? I'm also putting a question mark on this question. I think it's good for them to think about it once in a while and make it a part of their childhood.
Zhang Chenru, 11 years old, taken in 201712
Wen Xiuqi talked to me about her pain, and she re-read her first year of high school because of her physical problems. She is studying hard because she really wants to get out of the mountains.
Wen Xiuqi 12 years old taken in 20187
Liu Yu once called me ** when he was sad and wanted to talk to me. He rode his classmate's electric car, and if he broke the car, he had to pay the other party 100 yuan, because of this incident, his mother scolded him, and coupled with the pressure of the third year of junior high school, he was a little broken.
When he was in his third year of junior high school, his family sent him to a boarding middle school in the county town in order to let him go to a good high school. He knew that he should go to school well, but he was struggling to learn, and he had to force himself to study, and then he wanted to run away because of a sense of frustration.
When the children share their confusion with me, I can't even say things like "You have to work hard" because growing up is really hard. I would only say that if I have the opportunity to go to a wider area, I will have more options in the future.
When I spend time with them, I also think back to my teenage years, when we all experienced moments of impatience, anger, and confusion.
It's not easy to become an ordinary person along the way.
Check out the ** taken by photographer Xu Song in Lan County.
Dictation: Xu Song Interview Editor: Yidan
*Editing: Wheat **Producer: Yunjie