Bruno Barbey is a pioneer who broke with the black-and-white world of traditional photography. The renowned Morroco-born French photographer is also one of the first to record China with colored pictures back in the 1970s and 80s. A solo exhibition of Barbey, titled "Discovering China as It is", has opened at the National Art Museum of China. Sun Wei takes a look.

These 49 pieces of work recorded Barbey's journeys around China, including those in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Sichuan and Jiangsu.

His subjects include the young and the old, life in cities and rural areas, major historical events or just candid moments in everyday life.

WU WEISHAN DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ART MUSEUM OF CHINA "As an internationally celebrated photographer, Mr. Barbey has focused his camera on China for decades. He brings old memories back to us through photography, to let us see the 20th-century Chinese living conditions and spirits. He recorded not only the past years of the country on-the-move, but also the big revolution from its traditional culture to modernity. What he left us is the true colors of history. To Barbey, the colors were his way of telling stories in the form of photography, his way of observing the world, showing what China was really like in a foreigner's eyes."

The tight bond between Barbey and China originated from a visit to Beijing with then French President Georges Pompidou in 1973. From the first press of shutter in this country, history and times were closely related to him.

Much of the visual memory of the New China from its first three decades was marked by images made in black and white, while the China which Bruno shows is entirely in color! The works are valuable because most of them were realized in an era when the processes of transmission were still very traditional-- almost archaic.

SUN WEI BEIJING "Barbey's great contribution to the world of photography is his bold use of color at a time when everybody, or almost everybody was working in black and white. We know that is why he spared no forces of time, energy or means to ensure that his film would not discolor or get damaged."

Also a tribute to the 55th anniversary of China-France bilateral ties, the exhibition runs through July 28th. SW, CGTN, Beijing.