Approximate Joy

"Christopher Anderson's photographs of the citizens of of Shenzhen, China, describe a megacity that didn't exist thirty years ago, but today has some twenty million inhabitants. Working almost invisibly and bringing the viewer in close, into tightly cropped images that exclude all context except the ghostly light that illuminates the faces of his subjects. Anderson's etherial portraits ask "Who are these individual people? What do they dream about?" "I have seen the future and it is now and it is China. There is no need for the past. It can be erased. A new happiness is being constructed, an approximation of joy, better than the real thing." - Christopher Anderson Christopher Anderson first gained recognition in 1999 when his poignant images of the rescue of Haitian refugees taken onboard a sinking wooden boat named the "Believe in God" won him the Robert Capa Gold Medal. In 2005 he joined the renowned photo agency, Magnum. In addition to regular personal and editorial assignments Anderson is currently the first ever "Photographer in Residence" at New York Magazine" -- provided by Amazon