Through French photographer Bruno Barbey's lens, modern society gets the chance to see pictures of China from the last century.  

Barbey's photography exhibition "Natural Character of China," which runs through July 28 at the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, showcases scenes of Chinese people from the 1970s and 80s: landscapes, newlyweds, sleeping babies, school girls and myriads more.

Recording traces of time

Hardly any foreign photographers explored China with their camera lens in 1973. China didn't get as much attention then as it does now. Barbey is also the first Magnum photographer to shoot in China with color film; while most pictures at the time were produced in black and white.

The subject of Barbey's pictures ranges from portrait to landscape: urban and rural life, babies and old people, men and women and more. His pictures of China record the true feature of that era, and those images resonate with people.

His images of cloth shoes, wooden chairs, point-and-shoot cameras and other things that are hard to find now evoke a strong feeling of nostalgia among visitors. 

Mu Ruihong is a shutterbug who visited the exhibition. "Through Barbey's works, I feel photography is more about the reflection of your real life," she said. "We have so many apps nowadays to edit pictures, but I prefer his works because it feels more tangible. And this is how it resonated with me." 

The exhibition displays roughly 50 photographs of his work, showing Barbey's footprints all over Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Sichuan, Guangxi, and Jiangsu. 

A different China

In 1973, Barbey was appointed official photographer and a member of a French delegation when former French President Georges Pompidou was visiting China.

Barbey took a great many pictures in different Chinese provinces from 1973 to 2018. The pictures have been compiled into a book named "Color of China," which shows the evolution of China over the past 40 years.  

Nebojsa Lalic is a foreigner who is traveling in Beijing. For him, the contrast between China today and the China of the 1970s and 1980s is "unbelievable."

"In the last 40 years, from traditional China to (China today), this country moved to sci-fiction, to the future. You cannot find words to describe it," he said.

Photography is a timeless art

Barbey has received awards including the French National Order of Merit and the University of Missouri Photojournalism Award. He is a former global chairman of Magnum Photos and an academic at the French Academy of Art. 

The world has witnessed great changes in China. Skyscrapers have replaced the peaceful farmlands, and he has captured this and many more changes on film.

The exhibition coincides with the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and is also a tribute to the 55th anniversary of China-France bilateral ties.

Cover image designer: Li Yueyun

Video Editor: Zhang Ziyu