Wednesday 10 July 2013

Special book giveaway! Thomas Sauvin: Beijing Silvermine

To celebrate an increase in readership (1000 Words attracted its highest levels of traffic during both May and June 2013) we are delighted to announce a very special giveaway, courtesy of the Archive of Modern Conflict.

Our cover artist from issue 15, Thomas Sauvin, has generously agreed to make one set of his five photo albums from the critically acclaimed Beijing Silvermine series available for the competition. Each album contains 20 prints, 11 x 7.7cm, and is published in a limited edition of 200 copies.

To enter, simply hit 'Like' on our Facebook post or use the RT function on the 1000 Words Twitter account. The winner will be selected at random and notified on 1 August.

It's retail price is currently set at £84.00 though this is sure to increase as the edition gradually approaches its last remaining few copies. Below is the blurb for the book:

The negatives were salvaged from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing, where they had been sent to be filtered for their silver nitrate content. Between 2009 and 2013, Thomas Sauvin amassed, archived and edited more than half a million negatives destined for destruction. The Silvermine albums offer a unique photographic portrait of the Chinese capital and the lives of its inhabitants covering a period of 20 years – from 1985, when silver film came into widespread use in China, to 2005 when digital photography came to the fore. In these souvenir snapshots taken by anonymous and ordinary Chinese people, we are witnessing the birth of post-socialist China.

Each album focuses on a different theme:

-Blue album: TVs and Fridges
-Green album: One and Two
-Orange album: Marilyn and Ronald
-Pink album: Party and Transvestites
-Yellow album: Leisure and Work





We'll leave you with this video that has been doing rounds on the internet but nevertheless offers great insight into the mind of these ingenious collector and the circumstances surrounding the project. Good luck, dear readers!

Beijing Silvermine - Thomas Sauvin from Emiland Guillerme on Vimeo.