Chinese, b. 1958; lives and works in Beijing, China
Mo Yi began his career playing professional soccer in the Chinese league. By the late 1980s, however, he had embarked on creating a series of photographs set in hutong (alleyways) that capture alienation and suppression under the rapid urbanization of Chinese cities. In the 1990s, he abandoned his street photography to undertake image archiving, centered on scenes of his daily life in Tianjin. Mo’s works are marked by their visceral quality, which highlight the struggle of urban life in China and interrogate the country’s political past and present.
