Silvermine Albums / 银矿相册

"Silvermine" is a set of five photo albums each containing 20 prints. The negatives have been salvaged from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing, which Thomas Sauvin has been consistently amassing, selecting, classifying, and digitizing since 2009. 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.

《银矿》是一套五本的相册，每本包含20张相片。这些底片是抢救于北京郊区的一家回收站，自2009年以来，苏文一直在收集、筛选、分类和数字化这些底片。《银矿》相册展示了从1985年银盐胶卷在中国广泛使用到2005年数码摄影崭露头角，这20年间中国首都北京独特的肖像和百姓生活。在这些普通佚名的中国人拍摄的快照中，我们见证了后社会主义中国的诞生。每本相册都有不同的主题，蓝色相册：电视和冰箱；绿色相册：一和二；橙色相册：玛丽莲和罗纳德；粉色相册：派对和异装癖；黄色相册：休闲与工作。

Awards

Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Selected as one of the "Greatest Photo Books of All Time" by Source Photographic Review issue N°88, 2016
Entered the collection of BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France), 2016
Nominated for the Deutsche Börse Foundation Photography Prize, 2014
Nominated for the Best Photobook at the Fotobook Festival, Kassel, Germany, 2013
Shortlisted for the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award, France, 2013

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