Thomas Sauvin is a collector, artist, and publisher based between Paris and Beijing. Since 2009, he has been building Beijing Silvermine, an archive of vernacular photography based on negatives recovered from a recycling plant on the outskirts of Beijing.
Great Leaps Forward is a photobook composed of a bag of photographs purchased at a flea market in Beijing in 2016. Inside the bag were more than 300 photographs by an anonymous photographer who belonged to the photography department of Xi’an Physical Education University, documenting athletes on the same sports field on a sunny day in June 1960.
The title refers to the “Great Leap Forward,” the political campaign carried out in China from 1958 to 1962. From a period marked by political movement and severe famine, when photographic records are limited, this book brings together a group of anonymous images left at the margins of history, focusing on bodies jumping and performing gymnastics.
Text in English and Chinese. First edition of 750 copies.
Great Leaps Forward Thomas Sauvin Silvermine, 2019 172 × 334 × 15 mm With outer box, signed
