Mr. Jinqiang Sun, a renowned photographer from P.R. China and his Mt. Huashan sequence

Mr. Sun was born in 1954 in the city of Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province, in Southeast China. During his over thirty years in military service, Mr. Sun developed his initial interest in photography. After he left the military, Mr. Sun devoted himself to the landscape photography. The camera has become his vehicle to explore the world and his eyes to view the universe. To recognize his accomplishment, in May 2005, China's State Postal Bureau issued stamps from his Mt. Huashan series. The sequence was exhibited in the Chinese National Gallery of Art in April 2005. This was the very second solo photography exhibition ever given by the National Gallery. Such an honor is exceptionally rare in Chinese art history.

Jinqiang Sun's American debut at Bamboo Lane Gallery, Los Angeles, explores nature's spiritual influence of Mt. Huashan on the photographer. Mt. Huashan is one of China's five sacred mountains. Mt. Huashan boasts not only five imposing peaks with sheer precipices and over hanging rocks, but also places with historical and spiritual interest. Buddhist and Taoist temples and pavilions of its won style of architecture can be found everywhere. Many of the most celebrated Chinese kings and emperors had graced this mountain with their royal ceremonies, their pilgrims and their retreats. It is said that Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism, once lived and gave sermons here.

For the last couple of years, Mr. Sun has visited Mt. Huashan over 40 times. Like Ansel Adams, Mr. Sun's interest in artistic photography is not driven by commercial success: his creativity is purely inspired by his emotional connection with nature. It's understood that his word was done under the stimulus of a profound and mystical experience of the natural world. Examining the compositions of his works, a large void can be found in many his photos, which alludes to the traditional minimal Chinese composition. It's not unusual to see a long scroll of a traditional Chinese painting with an isolated subject at the bottom corner. This void creates room for further suggestiveness and balanced movement, so that the billowing clouds can venture out of the picture; the towering pine trees can stretch to the infinite; and the piercing cliffs can sprout through the sky. Mr. Sun gave dramatic interpretations of the magnificent beauty found in Mt. Huashan and unveiled her mystery.