China through the lens (4)

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Some of Liu's most famous photographs reveal details of Chinese people's daily lives — how they live, leisure and love. (Photo by Liu Heung Shing)

Photography is greatly different nowadays, compared with the 1970s when Liu started his career in China, Smith says.

One could take no more than 36 pictures with a roll of film and the photographer had to keep his wits about him whenever he was shooting.

Sometimes one might capture a great shot by luck, but most of the time, it is achieved through keen perception and understanding of the time and place he is working, Smith says.

Nowadays everybody takes pictures with digital cameras and mobile phones. Photography is no longer as reliable as it can be digitally altered using computer program Photoshop.

Liu says he belonged to the last generation of photojournalists. Now agencies and publications will dispatch their staff members wherever news happens. Journalists rarely have the luxury of living for years in a country, submerging into the local culture and lifestyle.

"I got to see China and digest what I saw through photography,"Liu says.

"I hope to present our common memories for the past 30 years, when China's drastic changes and development has the whole world impressed.

"It's impossible to present it with dry statistics of GDP, and that's not my job,"Liu says.

His photography of details of daily life — how people live, leisure and love — filled the giant gaps between the dry numbers of historic narration. It is the details and personal feelings that connects to all human beings, and makes his pictures special, Smith says.

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