Mountains Rise from Dust: Photography Art from the J & M Collection

The five participating artists—Dong Wensheng, Lu Yanpeng, TACA Sui, Yang Yongliang, and Zhang Kechun—are also long-time close friends. The changes of the times stand before each individual like a great mountain. Guided by their own artistic practices, each artist has found a path of their own. The mountain does not reject dust; it is precisely because it embraces and contains every particle that it can ultimately rise in such grandeur. As collectors, we are fortunate to walk alongside these artists and to have collected important works from different stages of their careers.

We first came to know these artists at the very beginning of their creative journeys. Looking back, each step they took was as small as dust, yet over time, these accumulated efforts have formed the towering mountains we see today. Over more than two decades of the development of contemporary photography in China, these artists have consistently been present. Their practices have never ceased—from early recognition through major domestic and international photography awards, to inclusion in important museum collections, accompanied by numerous significant exhibitions.