The Eighth Day

Shan Gao
The Eighth Day

Photographs: Shan Gao

Publisher: Imageless Press

Year: 2019

Comments: Softcover, 180 x 260 mm. Colors photographs. Limited edition of 500.

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

The relationship between the two characterized by coldness and indifference, according to Shan’s afterword. Only recently has he started to regard her as more than a mere presence in his life. In his ongoing series, he uses the camera not for cold observation but as an active tool in their relationship. An intimate, emotional photographic document that involves its viewers’s heart and mind.

Gao Shan received 2016 New Talented Award with his work “The Eighth Day”, and collected by Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris.

This book got the Aperture price for the Photobook Award First Book 2019.