Thomas Sauvin

In 2009, the French collector and artist Thomas Sauvin embarked on an unusual adventure: salvaging discarded negatives destined for destruction at a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing. Today it encompasses over half a million of anonymous photographs spanning the period from 1985 to 2005, and reconstructing a large part of the history of popular analogue photography in China. Based in Beijing, he is represented by Gallery Paris-Beijing. His work has been exhibited worldwide, among others, at Caochangdi Photo Festival in Beijing, FORMAT Photo festival in Derby, 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago, Festival Images in Vevey (Switzerland), Promenades photographiques in Vendôme (France) and Singapore International Photography Festival. His photobooks have drawn much attention since 2013. Silvermine Albums (Archive of Modern conflict, 2013) was nominated for the Deutsche Börse Foundation Photography Prize, the Best Photobook at the Fotobookfestival Kassel and the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award. More recently Until Death Do Us Part (Jiazazhi, 2015) has been included in the selections of best books by Photo-Eye and the New York Times as well as nominated for the KASSEL PHOTOBOOKAWARD 2017.