Andy Summers: The Bones of Chuang Tzu

The Bones of Chuang Tzu is Andy Summer's interpretation of China. Influenced by many aspects of Asian culture since his teenage years and particularly the writings of fourth-century Chinese poet, philosopher and disciple of the wandering life Chuang Tzu, this book is a logical culmination of these interests. Rather than a collection of standard pictures of China, Summers uses the backdrop of the country to explore its symbolic and poetic tropes as he sees them, finding the unique lines, shapes and textures that repeat and represent that civilization in metaphoric terms-thus we find the lotus, the brushstroke, the dragon. Summer focuses on aspects of China that are rapidly disappearing. But rather than romanticizing the past and seeing photography as an act of preservation, his pictures gesture towards the specific vitality of a culture. Take for example, Summer's photos of the Naxi orchestra in western China, through which he felt like he knew all these old musicians, but returning a year later he was dismayed to see many had passed on. "I found myself no longer shooting everything that confronted me," says Summers, "but rather slicing out pieces of my environment that would express something other: photographs as haiku. From Shanghai to Tibet, The Bones of Chuang Tzu reflects what happened."