Dream Machine
Ruben Lundgren
Dream Machine presents a broad collection of Chinese portrait photographs taken behind witty cardboard machinery over the past century. In photo studios all over China no efforts were spared to recreate a modern atmosphere with two-dimensional imitations of the latest machinery in fashion. From the first motorcycles in the 1940s, to tanks in the 1950s, planes in the 1960s and televisions in the 1980s. This kitschy album does brilliantly signify China’s continuous craving for the new.
This album consists of 35 photographs Ruben Lundgren collected at antique markets and via websites in China over the past decade. The colourful graphics are copied from an album originally produced in the 1960s which offers a historical tour along the banks of the famous West Lake in Hangzhou, Chima.
Ruben Lundgren (born 1983) is a Dutch photographer and curator who lives in Beijing. He graduated from China Central Academy of Fine Arts in 2011. He worked together with Thijs Groot Wassink within the conceptual photography duo WassinkLundgren. They made name with publications as Empty Bottles (2007). Together with Martin Parr he co-edited The Chinese Photobook (2015) which tells the story of China from 1900 up to the present in photobooks.
It’s a common mistake to believe that by the early 1900s, the Chinese population was hostile towards foreign products or modernity. Generally speaking, they enthusiastically embraced new trends. By the 1930s, Hangzhou had dozens of photographers. Ordinary people could have their portrait taken. Inside the photo studio they created a modern atmosphere with painted landscape backgrounds and foregrounds of the latest machinery.
Dream Machine
Photographer: Ruben Lundgren
Publisher: Jiazazhi Press & 200 cm
Published in 2023
Hardcover, 68 pages, 20 x 26 cm
Shortlisted for the Author Book Award 2023 at the Les Rencontres de la Photographie festival in Arles