A project shot by photographer Zeng Zexuan records the symbolic meaning of the Long March and the people along it. Zeng was born in China and started studying visual communication at Shanghai Normal University in 2015. After working as a freelance artist and designer, he studied at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, Germany. His artistic interests lie in the boundaries between documentary and fiction, and in the self-referential nature of memory. “Internal discussion” is a reflection of Zeng Fanzhi’s growth and education. Born and raised in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, where the “Long March” started, I once recalled that “Long March” patriotic badges and slogans were everywhere on almost every street corner. In the summer of 2024, Zeng Fanzhi undertook a two-month journey and recorded this route:
“I came to realize that it evolved into a political tool, transforming individual pain into necessary sacrifices required by the collective, with the message: ‘All pain is a journey, and all journeys must lead to success’… We live in an illusion constructed from false stories, where our intentions are revealed as some kind of mission, and our experiences are hammered into some kind of struggle. The image of the god we worship is so blurred that it is eroded by a vulgar soul.”
Zexuan Zeng entered and was shortlisted for our 2025 Booooooom Art & Photography Book Awards.
