Dinu Li - The Mother Of All Joumeys 2007

The Mother of All Journeys

Through a series of compelling colour photographs and old family snapshots, Dinu Li begins a pictorial journey into the memories of his 80 year old mother, who moved from southern China to the north of England in the early 70's. Working in collaboration with his mother, Li goes back to photograph the actual sites that appear in the process of remembering: from his mother's old school (now deserted) to the cornershop in England where nobody dared practise their English (demolished). Li's mother provides the narration while his images reveal the distance between the remembered time and place and their current reality. Many of the sites of family experience have changed beyond all recognition; these special fragments of time are only truly kept alive as memories. But Li's photography lifts these now empty rooms, unpeopled backyards and work places out of the mundane and into something much more profound.

Mark Sinclair
Senior Writer
Creative Review: June 2007