The Eve of the End of the Civil War: China Through the Lens of an American "Life" Magazine Reporter: Book Spine or Cover May Have Flaws

Author: Jack Barnes
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The photographs in The Eve of the End of the Civil War: China Through the Lens of Life Magazine come from American photographer Jack Barnes using his old camera. From these photos preserved for over 50 years, we see 1947 Shanghai, and the ordinary people and their lives amidst poverty, corruption, and chaos are extraordinary. They capture a turning point in history with a static perspective. Photographer Barnes, despite opposition from the magazine publisher, focused the camera on the ordinary people and their daily lives in war-torn China: young girls selling embroidery in foreign districts, child corpses waiting for cremation in morgues, citizens in qipaos or long robes scattered on the streets, piles of corpses by a river where stray dogs roamed, bundles of devalued banknotes being distributed to workers, police swinging batons at elderly women, students marching in protests, waitresses staging a protest, prisoners on display, politicians smiling, soldiers retreating, waiting, getting haircuts, roasting for warmth—every aspect of life during those hard times is vividly presented. War may pass, but these everyday warmth and injuries remain forever in Barnes' images. These photographs quietly document a turning point in history, many of which were not permitted to be published in the United States. After being stored away for over half a century, they are finally published together.