@lgrinker

Repost from @contactpressimages • Fifteen years ago today, Contact was celebrating its 30th anniversary and did so in the ancient Chinese city of Pingyao a former seat of economic power in central Shanxi Province but also home to the Pingyao International Photo Festival. Owing to the visionary curatorial brilliance of Contact co-founder Robert Pledge, an abandoned Diesel engine factory the length of a couple of football fields became the site of 30 ginormous contact sheets with grease pencil marks that hung back-to-back in the site. On the walls hung select images from the stories from which the contact sheets were derived. How it came together in as short a time span could be the subject of a book, but Bob drove a team to near exhaustion to get it done. Nearly all Contact photographers at the time flew to Pingyao for a week of lectures, exhibit floor talks and an agency general meeting or two. One of the images in this selection shows the late Ed Keating (back to camera) shooting in the early AM in the small town. Also Sean Hemmerle in a row of the women of Contact. There is a frame of Charles Ommanney doing some street shooting and a contact sheet postcard depicting a David Burnett contact sheet was pressed into service in a dumpling shop. An remarkable and fitting way to celebrate our 30th. The exhibition “Contact/s: The Art of Photojournalism” toured in a slightly smaller size to venues in China, elsewhere in Asia, Europe, the US and Australia. #pingyao #pingyaointernationalphotographyfestival #pingyaoancientcity #contactpressimages #30thanniversary #photojournalism #theartofphotojournalism #davidburnett #charlesommanney #lorigrinker #yunghikim #seanhemmerle #edkeating #robertpledge #frankfournier #stephendupont