Qingjun Huang
Qingjun Huang is a freelancer artist, he was born and raised in China, currently based in USA.
Qingjun’s representative work is Family Stuff series started from 2003 and includes 160 works. Robert Frank said “Your work is an open window to look at China.” His works have been exhibited worldwide, including International Museum of the Red Cross, Chengdu Art Museum, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, HeadOn Photo Festival, Singapore and Helsinki Photo Festival, among others. BBC featured him four times, NY Times, Bloomberg, Wired, Guardian, China Daily also featured him.
Qingjun Huang was born in the 1970s in Daqing, a Chinese oil city. At the age of 16, he discovered photography at a youth center and developed a passion for it. With the support of his mother, who bought him a Ricoh 10 camera—the most expensive possession in their household at the time—he began his photographic journey.
In 1992, he met the renowned photographer Wang Fuchun in Beijing, who became his mentor and helped him pursue a systematic study of photography. Under Wang’s influence, Huang focused his lens on people, capturing the changes in society.
In 2003, he began his series of works titled “Family Stuff” Noted art critic Wang Chunchen praised his work for reflecting the essence of society. In 2012, in New York, Huang had the opportunity to meet the master photographer Robert Frank and shared his “Family Stuff” series. Frank expressed great appreciation for Huang’s work and wrote a note “Your work is an open window to look at China” which further encouraged him to continue exploring this series.
To date, Huang has photographed 160 works in his “Family Stuff” series, which has branched into themes including Online Shopping Family Stuff, Homeless People’s Family Stuff, and The Stuffs of Live Streamers. His work has been exhibited globally at venues such as Kunsthalle München, Christie’s London, the International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Chengdu Art Museum, Xi’an Art Museum, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, HeadOn Photofestival, Photoquai Biennial, Singapore International Photography Festival, and the Benaki Museum.
He has been featured by the BBC four times, and his work has appeared in the New York Times, Bloomberg, Wired, Business Insider, the Guardian, and China Daily. His photographs are also included in publications such as HUMAN.KIND, NatGeo, Harvard Business Review, Family Photography Now, Chinese Photography, and textbooks by Oxford University and National Geographic Learning.
Qingjun Huang is the Fujifilm 2022 GFX Grant Challenge Global Winner and Lishui Photography Festival Best of Show.
Today, “Family Stuff” remains central to his work and life. During this journey, he also found love. In 2022, he moved to the United States, aiming to document the family belongings of American people through his lens.
Books:
《A Family’s Possessions*The Great Changes of Chinese Families over a Decade》
《Huang Qingjun》
Exhibitions:
Civilization: The Way We Live Now, Kunsthalle Munich, Germany
International Museum of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, Geneva, Switzerland.
Culture Identified, Christie’s London, UK.
Peoria City Hall, USA
HEIGHT Masterpiece Exhibition of Famous Chinese Photographers, Chengdu Art Museum, China
Lishui Photography Festival, China
Resonance, A Tribute to Robert Frank, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, China
Head On Photo Festival
Helsinki Photo Festival, Finland
Global Localized Chinese Contemporary Art, Hunan Art Museum
Photoquai Photography Biennial, France
Singapore International Photography Festival
Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Greece
The Transformations of a Thread, Xi’an Art Museum
Paris Photo
Lianzhou FOTO
Pingyao International Photo Festival
