Thea Berggren Photo Collection: Looking at China and its People in the 1980's
About this collection
- Extent
-
906 digital objects.
- Description
-
Thea Berggren is a visual artist, photographer, and designer residing in Chicago. She traveled to China from December 1980 to January 1981 and took more than 900 photographs on 35mm color negatives. These images capture and tell the story of the Chinese people at that moment in history. Viewers can gain insight through the subjects' circumstances, facial expressions, body language, and spontaneous juxtapositions. The cities she visited include Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu, Xi'an, Luoyang, and Beijing.
In addition to the color negatives, Thea donated 34 large prints that were once part of an exhibition described as "capturing the essence of a moment on film, chance, and quick reflex," and serving as "an introduction to one billion Chinese people." Reflecting on her travels to China in 1980, Thea shared: "Traveling means being a guest in foreign lands and cultures. Visiting China is shaped by the exoticism of the country, its history, and the strength and spirit of the Chinese people. Through close encounters with people, I tried to focus on aspects of daily life."
This collection was digitized with the generous support from the Avery-Tsui Foundation in honor of Sally T. WongAvery. We are grateful for the Foundation's support in preserving and providing access to historical materials on Chinese Studies. We also thank Thea Berggren for her assistance in processing the collection. - Creation Date
- December 1980 – January 1981
- Photographer
- Note
-
Using limited information from 35 exhibition large prints (titles and six locations), the Library project team employed generative artificial intelligence to batch-generate metadata for the images in this collection. This builds on the foundational prompt work of a colleague from UC Berkeley C.V. Starr East Asian Library, and has been refined iteratively by the project team.
Users mostly see AI-generated metadata without extensive edits, exceptions include inserting photo locations, adjusting titles to collocate photos, and adding specific data from inscriptions and/or about landmarks depicted in the images. - Geographics
- Topics
