Series: Humanism in China, No. 235
Location: Dachang District, Nanjing
Medium: Laser Silver Halide
Edition: 1/8+2AP
Signature: Signed by the artist
In August 1991, in Dachang District, Nanjing, a mother accompanies her child doing homework on a summer night. In the image, she sews while urging the child on, with fatigue, anxiety, and responsibility compressed into a single moment. Through a vivid documentary language, the work captures a highly representative everyday scene in Chinese family education and gives striking visual form to the social phenomenon of parental homework supervision.
Tian Ming is a photographer, curator, and educator, and a member of the China Photographers Association. He is currently Vice Chairman and Artistic Director of the Jiangsu Entrepreneurs Photography Association, Vice Chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area, and Chairman of its Photographers Association; he previously served as Vice Chairman of the 6th Nanjing Photographers Association. His works have received the Gold Collection Award and Excellence Award in the documentary category, as well as the Bronze Collection Award in the art category, at the 23rd National Photographic Art Exhibition, the Bronze Collection Award in the multimedia category at the 25th National Photographic Art Exhibition, and the inaugural Jiangsu Literature and Art Photography Award. He has long been active in documentary photography, teaching, and curating, and has had wide influence in Jiangsu documentary photography.
Exhibitions, Publications & Collection: Homework Supervision won First Prize in the Family Photography Competition organized by Nanjing Daily in the year it was made, later received Second Prize in China Photography's Humorous Photography Competition and a Silver Medal in the professional section of China Summer organized by China Photography News, and was selected for the 18th National Photographic Art Exhibition. The work was subsequently included in publications such as Humanism in China-Documentary in the Contemporary, Our Life: A Pictorial Chronicle of Half a Century of Ordinary People's Lives, and Me and My Motherland, and entered the collection of the Guangdong Museum of Art in 2004. It was also included in Walking with the Times: Sixty Years of the National Photographic Art Exhibition.