TANCIC, Matjaz - Timekeepers

Background information

"In 2012, Slovenian photographer Matjaž TANCIC traveled to Yi County in Anhui Province for the first time. He took portraits of over twenty farmers in their living rooms using 3D technology, two pictures: one with the clock on the table, another with the people in the room. As there was a clock in almost every family, he called the series 'Timekeeper'. The clock with chimes, a symbol of modernization, is located in the center of the traditional living room. The center wall is reserved for the pictures of the ancestors. When the descendants pray in front of these images, they feel a particularly strong sense of serious determination. Regardless of time, generations coexist in one room in accordance with etiquette, forming a chain of life in which time seems endless. Yet televisions and DVD players appear as new symbols of modern life, while the clock stands for the old adage 'All life is smooth and quiet'.
He returned to Yi County in 2014. He visited around fifty families in villages in Yi County. In their private homes, he photographed their furniture and positioned the residents frontally in their rooms. Their skin, marked by agricultural and outdoor work, in combination with the interior and their belongings, helped TANCIC to make abstract time visible. Although living in remote villages, the inhabitants are connected to the crowded cities that will one day demolish their homes once progress reaches the land where the crops are grown and the labor comes from. These neglected issues are revealed in TANCIC's photographs." (free translation of the publisher's text, © Jiazazhi, 2015)

Content

The 3D images inside the book, conceived as an old photo album, show people and the interiors of their homes in China. As there is a wall clock in almost every household, the Slovenian photographer, who commutes between Europe and China, chose 'Timekeeper' as the title for this work, which oscillates between the future and the past.

About Slovenian photographer, Madjaz TANCIC (b.1982)

Photo books by and with works by Madjar TANCIC