Chinese photographer Xiao Quan was present for all the important events of the 1980s as China’s independent art scene was taking shape. He consistently mapped all of the unofficial historical milestones during the emancipation of arts communities in the northern and southern provinces and, naturally, participated in those events. He travels to remote areas of China as well as to western metropolises and has released a number of excellent publications devoted to certain localities and to the different people whose lot it is to live in such places, frequently under a range of diametrically opposed material conditions.