Yan Jiacheng: The Worker-Photographer Documenting Guangzhou's Invisible Labor

Yan Jiacheng, a Guangzhou-based photographer with a day job, has been shortlisted for the RPS International Photography Exhibition and longlisted for the Aesthetica Art Prize in 2024. Working full-time at an office since graduating in Chinese Literature from Jinan University in 2016, Yan uses his remaining hours for photography. His series 'This is a Long Story' (2018–) includes a composite image of sanitation workers disinfecting railings during COVID-19 quarantine in February 2020. 'The Corner Where the Cleaning Aunt Rests' (2024–) documents makeshift rest spots for cleaning workers, mostly women, in backrooms and stairwells. 'Inscriptions in Jiushuikeng' (2024) records carvings on trees in a former electronics district in Guangzhou, revealing workers' emotional lives. 'The Second Child's Second Child' (2022–) stages portraits of former 'second children' from China's one-child policy era with their own second children, using translucent plastic to obscure identities. Yan does not identify as an artist or photographer, maintaining an observational distance and focusing on collective societal conditions.