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The collection of Fritz Hoffmann’s China Work contains 200,000 images he made in China from 1994 to 2018. This gallery of pictures selected from the collection provides a general sense of the diversity of subjects and a wide range of locations that Hoffmann’s photography in China covers. Follow the collection on Instagram at @fritzhoffmannschinawork

All content is Copyright 1994-2026 Fritz Hoffmann

Open post by fritzhoffmannschinawork with ID 18353663233219164
You weren’t going anywhere fast in Shanghai in the summer of 1996. This was the view outside my first apartment then. Avenues being plowed through neighborhoods. Sewers going in. Construction above and below. Clunky buses. Bicycles. Motorcycles. Traffic jams. And there was a railway crossing here where 100 cars filled with coal would throw your schedule off by 30 minutes. Walking was faster. I lived in a typical two room flat off Hong Qiao Road. I moved in at night. The police were at my door early the next morning. “Foreigners can’t live here.” This was Shanghai.

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Open post by fritzhoffmannschinawork with ID 18033832754197028
After a difficult traverse of high dunes to this oasis in the middle of the Tengger desert in Inner Mongolia, China I was warmly welcomed by the few remaining residents in their small village. I went looking for the source of the sandstorms that plague Beijing and found Yang Xiaoyan cutting grass with her neighbors in the oasis village Zhagetu in the Tenggeli (Tengger) Desert in Inner Mongolia, China. The harvest would feed livestock through the coming Winter. China’s central government had been relocating residents to keep them from cutting the grass needed to retain the sand.

There are no roads to Zhagetu. You read the sand to navigate up and over high dunes. It was a crazy, gut-wrenching three-hour drive. I began to doubt if we would find the oasis in all that sand, then, amazed to see the patch of green. The village was being swallowed by shifting sands. @magnumphotos @fritzhoffmannschinawork @thephotosociety #tengger #innermongolia #china

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Open post by fritzhoffmannschinawork with ID 17940263377948226
It was this last frame at the end of a long day of photography that made it to print. This is near Lugu Lake in Yunnan province where the Mosuo minority lives. But I didn’t find a picture at the lake. It had become developed for tourism by 2007 when I visited. So I hiked a couple hours up to a remote Mosuo village, made some pictures and hiked out. It was end of the day by the time we returned to the car. We hadn’t driven but a short distance when I spotted the small, young white horse in the distance standing in the center of the road. The sun lit it so nicely. I got out of the car and walked slowly forward but the horse moved to where it is here in the photo. The residents of the village were active and I made some quick frames before curiosity and suspicion of me changed the scene and those last rays of sun were lost. The picture stood out in our edit and was printed as a two page spread in the National Geographic cover-to-cover special edition on China that was published ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The people living there are actually of the Yi minority, not Mosuo. The Yi usually dwell in the hills but the people I photographed here told me, actually told my hired driver, that poverty had motivated them to move down to this valley. Copyright 2007-2022 Fritz Hoffmann #china #yiminority #lugulake #yunnan #beautifullandscape #goldenhourlight #filmphotography #leicaMP #leicachina #fritzhoffmann #nationalgeographic

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Open post by fritzhoffmannschinawork with ID 18149740525242258
Make an IMPACT NOW, for Humanitarian Relief! I am honored to participate and offer this image in the new flash print initiative spearheaded by @Vital.Impacts with the photographers of @NatGeo. 100% of profits will be donated to @directrelief who are allocating these funds to the regions in the world in most need of humanitarian aid. They are working in Ukraine now to provide medical aid to people affected by the conflict. Act now. It ends April 20, 2022. See all the images and get involved today at vitalimpacts.org/collections/impact-now (link in profile.) Thank you to @cansoninfinity for donating all of the paper for this sale. #vitalimpacts #ukraine #peace #humanitartian #solidarity This image of Shaolin Kung fu Master Shi Dejian at his Chanwuyi center high in the mountains called Songshan in Dengfeng, Henan, China stirs strong memories in me. I was moved by Master Dejian and his life of devotion. Shi Dejian left the Shaolin temple when it began to stray further from it origins and expand commercial ventures. He built the center from granite cut from the mountain. It is breathtaking to visit. Chan is zen. Wu is martial arts and Yi is Chinese medicine. Shi Dejian is a practicing Buddhist monk, a vegetarian. Many times martial artists have sought him out to challenge him. While I was there a Thai kick boxing champ arrived with film crew in tow. Master Dejian refused to fight him. The challenger persisted and finally Dejian offered that his novice apprentice would stand in for him. Within seconds, the kick boxer met his fate and was laid out by the apprentice. Copyright 2010 Fritz Hoffmann #chanwuyi #shaolin #kungfumaster #shidejian #songmountain #monkonmountain #fritzhoffmann #natgeo

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