LU YUFAN

Ghost Workers (2017-2020)

The neoliberal process in China has spanned the last four decades, bringing tremendous changes to society — including the massive employment layoff (xiagang) that involved at least 70 million state-owned enterprise (SOE) workers. The workers lost their "iron rice bowl" jobs, and the attendant social, economic and political life that the government had tacitly promised them under the all-encompassing work unit (danwei) system.

My parents were laid-off workers in Tianjin, an industrial northern Chinese city. I witnessed the impact of job losses on ordinary workers since I were young. Two decades after the massive layoff, the world seems to have happily forgotten them, despite some of them are still struggling for decent social benefits while remaining confused about what happened to them.

Their collective muteness, like what Simon. J. Charlesworth wrote, "falling like snow, erasing the pathways through which we might return, once again, to the village of our being", has fallen into a causal loop with the effacement of the material grounds that memory depends on: As urban space keeps overwriting itself with new landscape and discourse, the laid-off workers are caught in modern society's amnesia resulted from what Pierre Nora calls "acceleration of history", trapped by their past like specters.

This nostalgic project invited laid-off workers in Tianjin to act out their old jobs at the site of their former factories. It is dedicated to specters like my parents, with the hope of keeping a piece of tangible reminders of the Chinese laid-off workers' collective memory and individual humanity.

Essay: Ghost workers: How do people cope with the scar of job loss? A Chinese photographic research project

Ghost Workers (2017-2020)

Essay: Ghost workers: How do people cope with the scar of job loss? A Chinese photographic research project

Yufan Lu (b.1991) is from Tianjin, China.

Education

2016 - 2017 MA Photography and Urban Cultures, Goldsmiths, University of London

Experience

2020 World Press Photo Joop Swart Masterclass

2019 Magnum Foundation Photography Expanded Mentorship Program

2018 Angkor Photo Workshop

Selected Exhibitions

2025 'Return', Photographic Gallery Hippolyte, Helsinki, Finland

2025 'Image Being', Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, Finland

2024 'Body', Gallery Seek, Tallinn Museum of Photography, Tallinn, Estonia

2024 'Picturing Urban and Community Research: 30 Years of CUCR', Goldsmiths University, London, UK

2023 'Out of Joint', New Collectors Gallery, New York, US

2023 'Power and Perspective', Peabody Essex Museum, US

2022 'Radical Imagination’ - King’s Cross Outside Art Project, The Photographers' Gallery, London, UK

2022 Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, Mannheim, Germany

2022 Healing in the Heart of Storm, Cang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China

2021 PhEST - See Beyond the Sea, Monopoli, Italy

2021 Young Portfolio 2020, Kiyosato Museum of Photography Arts, Kiyosato, Japan

2020 7th Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore

2020 7th Lumix Festival for Young Visual Journalism (virtual exhibition), Hannover, Germany

2019 Top 20 Chinese Contemporary Photography Exhibition, Hangzhou, China

2018 DOK18 Photo Festival, ‘New Era’, Fredrikstad, Norway

2017 Urban Photo Festival, 'The Urban Condition', London, UK

Selected Awards

2024 Star Photobook Dummy Award, finalist

2024 Landskrona Foto & Breadfield Dummy Award, honorable mention

2023 The 9th Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award, special mention

2021 Bartur Photo Award, 'Human Love' third place

2020 Firecracker Photography Grant

2020 PHmuseum Photography Grant, New Generation Honorable Mention

2018 Encontros da Imagem, recipient of Photobook Awards & Discovery Awards finalist

卢禹凡1991年生于天津。

教育经历

2016 - 2017 伦敦金匠学院 / 摄影与城市文化专业

其他经历

2020 Joop Swart大师班

2019 拓影师友计划

2018 吴哥摄影工作坊

展览

2025 “Return”，Photography Gallery Hippolyte，芬兰赫尔辛基

2025 “Image Being”，芬兰摄影博物馆，芬兰赫尔辛基

2024 “身体”，Gallery Seek，塔林摄影博物馆，爱沙尼亚塔林

2024 “Picturing Urban and Community Research: 30 Years of CUCR”，金匠学院，英国伦敦

2023 “Out of Joint”，New Collectors Gallery，美国纽约

2023 “权利与视角”，皮博迪·埃塞克斯博物馆，美国塞勒姆

2022 "Radical Imagination" - 国王十字路露天艺术展，摄影师画廊，英国伦敦

2022 当代摄影双年展，德国曼海姆

2022 “摄影新节点，生于1990”，仓美术馆，中国杭州

2021 PhEST - See Beyond the Sea, 意大利莫诺波利

2021 清里摄影美术馆青年摄影典藏展，日本清里

2020 第七届新加坡国际摄影节，新加坡

2020 第七届Lumix Festival for Young Visual Journalism（线上展览），德国汉诺威

2019 Top20·2019中国当代摄影新锐展，中国杭州

2018 DOK18 Photo Festival, “New Era”展览，挪威腓特烈斯塔

2017 伦敦城市摄影节，“The Urban Condition”展览，英国伦敦

奖项

2024 Star摄影样书奖入围

2024 Landskrona Foto摄影样书奖荣誉奖

2023 第九届侯登科纪实摄影奖提名

2020 Firecracker摄影奖

2020 PHmuseum Photography Grant新生代荣誉奖

2018 Encontros da Imagem摄影书奖，入围发现奖