Gao Sian - The Eight Day - 2019

Gao Shan’s award-winning photobook “The Eighth Day” takes its name from the photographer’s personal history – on the eighth day after his birth, Shan was adopted by his new mother.

Limited to just 400 copies!

While growing up, Shan’s relationship with his mother was often indifferent and aloof. But, when he turned his camera on his mother, he started to understand the unique nuances of her lived experience. In the Eighth Day, the young photographer uses his camera not as an instrument for observation but as a tool to break open their relationship and actively bring them closer together. An intimate, touching, and poignant photographic portrayal of seeing and being seen for the first time.

Awards:
-The Eighth Day was the winner of the 2019 Aperture First Photobook Award.
– In 2016, Gao Shan received the New Talent Award for his body of work “The Eighth Day,” collected by Fondation Cartier pour l’art Contemporain, Paris.