The southern Chinese city of Guangzhou is home to China’s largest African migrant population, predominantly from Nigeria. In the city’s Little North Road neighborhood there is a small pedestrian bridge where immigrants from all over the world go to relax, hang out, and have their picture taken by local Chinese photographers.
Brooklyn-based artist Daniel Traub was so intrigued by these images that he made an arrangement with the photographers to collect the images of thousands of African migrants for a multimedia art project. Although Traub’s vast image archive from Little North Road offers tremendous artistic potential, it also raises serious ethical questions over whether it is moral to publish these images when the individuals did not provide informed consent. Traub joins Eric and Cobus to discuss the art and the ethics of his Little North Road project.
Recommendations
- Little North Road
- “Xiaobeilu,” Lesley A. Martin, Aperture, Spring 2014
- “Daniel Traub的广州小北路黑人社区摄影项目,” Vice (China), 2014 [Chinese and English]