Image of the Day January 6
The Changing Face Of A Global Power: 30 Years Worth Of Photos Taken By Ordinary People In China

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Over the past several years, we've heard so much about China's emergence as a global power... it's easy to forget how much life has changed there in the past 30 years.

Well, this series of photos offers a rare, fascinating glimpse back at the 1980s when China was slowly starting to discover a more Western way of life, if you will.

The photos were put together by Thomas Sauvin, a French artist based in Beijing.

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He has collected more than half a million 35mm colour film negatives - all of them taken by ordinary, anonymous people in China.

He recovered them in recycling zones throughout Beijing, where they were going to be destroyed. He found everything from family shots to souvenir and vacation snaps.

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Out of all those negatives, Sauvin put together a collection of 300 images for an exhibit called Silvermine, which capture the changing face of China.

They are intriguing, charming, sometimes awkward, and definitely authentic. You can see more of the images on the Guardian's website.

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