How a Chinese Photographer Turned Grief Into Artwork

In July 2024, Chinese photographer Niu Tong was staying with a pal in Beijing, caught between job functions and his mom’s worsening most cancers, when he discovered he had been shortlisted for the Leica Oskar Barnack Award — one of many images world’s most revered honors for documentary work.

“When I finally opened the message and saw I’d made the shortlist, my mind went blank,” Niu, 27, informed Sixth Tone. He was the fourth Chinese photographer to obtain the popularity because the award’s founding in 1979.

The honor was a bittersweet second. Niu was shuttling between finding out within the northwestern metropolis of Xi’an and his mom Ye Ju’s hospital mattress in his hometown of Nanjing, capital of the jap Jiangsu province. “In July, she seemed well enough that I thought we might go to Germany for the ceremony together,” he stated. “But by October, she was too weak to travel.”

His shortlisted sequence, “The Express Delivery Project,” was each impressed by his mom and constructed round her expertise. According to the official quotation, the work captures every day life in China’s categorical supply sector at a time of slowing progress, following what the jury known as a “golden decade” of enlargement in logistics and e-commerce.

The undertaking started in 2020, after an argument. Niu, then a images graduate scholar, had simply discovered that his mom had taken a job at a neighborhood supply station. Worried about her well being — she had beforehand injured her again working in a manufacturing unit — he tried to speak her out of it. When she refused, he joined the station himself, posing as an intern to look at over her and quietly observe the surroundings he was starting to contemplate for his commencement undertaking.

At first, Niu discovered himself always pulled between the supply station and his research. Once he was capable of totally immerse himself within the undertaking in late 2021, when his mom moved to a brand new supply station, he labored and lived there for a whole month.

Initial images makes an attempt met resistance. The proprietor suspected Niu of investigating malpractice, whereas staff didn’t perceive why they have been being photographed. But this resistance unexpectedly fostered extra communication between Niu and his mom, who typically needed to clarify his work to others.

His mom turned his information into this world, accompanying him after shifts and serving to him join with staff. “They trusted her because they knew her character,” Niu stated.

The turning level got here when he photographed his mom utilizing a large-format digital camera throughout winter break. When they enlarged the portrait, they might see Niu’s reflection in her eyes. They agreed that taking pictures portraits felt extra solemn and respectful, and it might grow to be a part of his ethos as a photographer. This shot, in the meantime, would later grow to be his mom’s funeral portrait.

Over time, Niu realized he was not documenting China’s broader logistics system, however particular person staff. Around 2021, his portraits started specializing in staff’ tales, their work, and residing situations.

At faculty, this method was met with restricted understanding. While his academics acknowledged that he’d recognized a related social challenge, they remained hesitant to endorse his path, nervous that the main target would supply too slender a perspective on the trade. “You can’t fully convey the psychological experience or your relationships with workers,” Niu stated. “Teachers only see the final photos and judge based on that.”

When his mom was recognized with most cancers in 2022, Niu took a depart of absence from faculty and targeted solely on taking pictures what he wished to shoot.

During this time, he developed the themes that may later grow to be his Leica-shortlisted sequence. This interval additionally supplied his longest steady time together with his mom, throughout which he got here to raised perceive her profession alternative — one which mirrored a generational expertise. She had been born in a small village within the jap Anhui province and moved to Nanjing across the age of 16 to work in factories, till she was laid off. During their conversations, Niu’s mom emphasised the sensible advantages of manufacturing unit work: she earned over 1,000 yuan ($140) extra per thirty days than comparable jobs, and obtained medical insurance coverage and a pension. She additionally valued the group she’d discovered amongst coworkers from related backgrounds, a few of whom she had recruited herself.

Some of Niu’s different topics’ described sentiments that resonated together with his mom’s personal. One, a feminine courier who Niu captured sitting in a purple raincoat, informed him she had beforehand labored as a meals supply rider, always speeding by way of town, till she was injured. The courier station, she stated, felt like “shelter” by comparability.

Niu ultimately shot over 400 large-format negatives. For his commencement, and later for the Leica award submission, he organized the work round three themes: seasonal modifications from one winter to the subsequent, the importance of Spring Festival, and the “reverse migration” of staff again to their rural hometowns. He then chosen 20 pictures for submission.

But throughout his mom’s decline in well being, Niu discovered himself utilizing his digital camera much less. “We photographers understand that getting a photo means that moment is already past, already lost,” he stated. “After her cancer diagnosis, I could barely bring myself to use the camera. In her final days, I couldn’t lift any camera, not even my phone.” He may solely doc traces — her palms, scars, rashes, and the results of chemotherapy. “The experience was particularly harsh and heavy,” he stated.

His mom made her personal funeral preparations, requesting her ashes be buried in a park or scattered within the Yangtze River, however not returned to their ancestral village. After visiting her hometown throughout her sickness, she discovered she may now not adapt to rural life.

Niu’s mom Ye Ju handed away in early 2025. Niu finds consolation in her having witnessed him receiving recognition for his work, which many stated dignified the lives of laborers. She additionally noticed him safe a college educating place, which she thought of a decent, secure job. “I think she would have been proud,” Niu stated. “Her life of instability finally enabled my own stability.”

Since her loss of life, Niu’s life has taken on a slower tempo. He resigned from his educating publish, moved to Shanghai, and now solely visits supply stations round as soon as a month for ongoing remark.

His focus has as a substitute shifted to writing as he reconsiders the position of images. “For me, photography quickly shows you surfaces and lets you be drawn to an image,” he stated. “It’s an opportunity, a key that lets you unlock deeper stories.”

Crucially, he additionally wants time to course of his grief. Nearly a yr after his mom’s loss of life, sure moments nonetheless overwhelm him. He remembers how, in her remaining days, she complained of one thing inflicting ache in her again. He would assist her up, search, and discover nothing, but she insisted one thing was there. They repeated this sample a number of occasions.

“Later, after an interview in a small village, I was on a hard-sleeper train back to Xi’an,” he stated. “I couldn’t sleep. The top bunk was cramped, so I made a support with the blanket and lay on it, writing. Around 2 or 3 a.m., I felt a dull pain in my shoulder blade. I searched but found nothing. At that moment, I experienced this resonant pain and completely broke down, crying heavily. There are many small moments like this. I need a very long time to process and contain this pain.”

Asked what the award finally means to him, Niu stated, “It cannot resolve individual pain, whether your own or others’ … But it can open a door, allowing you to see others’ lives, and to glimpse your own reflection.”

(Header picture: At the tip of the Chinese New Year, a courier leaves his hometown as soon as once more to return to work within the metropolis, 2023. All photographs courtesy of Niu Tong)