THE celebrated French photographer Marc Riboud has been shooting the light and shade of China's progress since 1957, Michelle Zhang reports.

Marc Riboud preferred to "walk around" rather than sit in the hotel room for the interview as we had arranged. So he took me to the second floor of Shanghai Art Museum where a retrospective exhibition of the legendary French photographer's work is being held until April 2.

"How about I tell you some stories behind the pictures?" suggested the old man with long white hair and sparkling eyes.

The exhibition, titled "The Instinctive Moment," retraces the various stages of Riboud's enlightened career and among the exhibits are some of the most famous photos of the 20th Century.

Such as the image he clicked on October 21, 1967, in which a young girl, with a flower in her hands and a kindly gaze in her eyes, bravely confronts the soldiers' bayonets in a Vietnam peace rally in Washington, D.C.

And "The Painter of the Eiffel Tower," his first enormously successful picture, published in 1953, featuring a man perched between the metal armature of the famous tower, painting freely as if in a dancer's pose.

But Riboud first took me to a black-and-white photo he took in Shanghai in 2002. In the center is a cracked brick wall typical of what can be found in the city's many tiny old lanes. On the wall are painted two large Chinese characters: xi che (car washing).

"I love Chinese characters," Riboud said. "They are so fascinating although I don't understand what they mean. In fact, I only know about 50 Chinese words. I don't know why, but in China everyone talks to me in French."

Without speaking the language, or becoming a sinologist, the 87-year-old has photographed China more than any other foreign photographer. He has visited China more than 20 times since his first trip in 1957.

"Marc has always stayed an outsider in order to keep a fresh eye and be ready for surprises," said independent curator Jean Loh, a close friend.

Almost half of the 118 carefully selected works depict China scenes. From the Northeast steppes to the Southern rice fields, from the Himalayas to the east coast cities, from Anshan's industrial zone to Shenzhen's boom town, the tireless traveler has been chasing the light and shade of China and its people.

"The ensemble of his Chinese photographs is a valuable legacy of the history of China and a documentary photographer's testimony to the incredible changes. It also shows a master's love for a country, its culture and its people," commented Jean-Marie Fersing, chairman and CEO of Etam China, the exhibition's major sponsor.

Through his lens, Riboud has followed those who have played a role in the gigantic transformation of China in the past 50 years: the leaders, the workers, the farmers, women and children.

Riboud then took me to another picture featuring a Chinese peasant woman sitting with grace and dignity on a chair, immersed in her own little world despite the happenings around her.

"It is the first picture I took in China," he recalled. "I was on a train from Hong Kong to Guangzhou. You can see there is an oblique line in the picture. Why I took the picture? I think maybe it's because she didn't look at me at that time."

The master photographer is very good at capturing fleeting moments in life. "He would say that he is no philosopher or sociologist and that he simply looks at the surface of things," Lou pointed out. "But it did not stop him from producing a series of powerful pictures that challenge the viewer to observe and to think."

Jean-Marie Fersing agreed: "Looking at his photographs makes us more intelligent. It sharpens our eyes, and renders us more fully aware of life around us."

The photographer himself, however, said that he never thinks too much before clicking the shutter. "Photography is essentially a spontaneous reaction to a surprise," he said. "If we think too much about the form, you risk falling into a beauty trap, whereas photography is about changes; the instinctive moment, the snapshot."

The next photo he showed was another he took during his 2002 Shanghai trip. In a small courtyard of a traditional Shanghainese family, a girl is washing her hair while the father is strolling around. Hanging above them are clothes, quilts and blankets, a scene familiar to every Shanghainese.

"I like the picture a lot," he said. "It shows the real Shanghai. I still remember the dad murmuring as if he was planning for his day.

"It is sad to see that more and more old houses like this have been torn down so that new high rises can be built. But do we really need so many high buildings?"

He walked towards another photo. I was surprised by his ability to find the exact picture he wanted. It was a photo he took in Ghana in 1960. A group of naked black children greet the photographer filled with joy and excitement. There was also curiosity in their eyes. "They were so happy when they saw me," recalled the old man. "I was the first white person they had ever seen in that small village."

Riboud loves China but he does not love China alone. He wandered a lot in the East and Far East, spending a year in India and photographing countries in Africa and Algeria at the time of independence.

"Obviously we can't hold back the changes of time," he said. "However, maybe we could consider slowing down the procedure a bit. Modern people should read more, kill less."

During his one-week Shanghai stay, most likely his last to the city, Riboud revisited many places he used to photograph, including the Bund area, Yuyuan Garden, the Yangpu and Nangpu bridges and Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art. He also visited the World Expo site.

"He takes pictures all the time, as is always the case," said his wife Catherine. "We love the view from the terrace of Bar Rouge on a late afternoon. It is so beautiful."

He equates his photo shooting to the daily practice of a musician. "I always want to take pictures of beautiful people and sceneries I see," he explained. "To a photographer, it is a way to train his eyes, just like how a pianist trains his fingers and ears through constant performing.

"Rather than a profession, photography has always been a passion for me, a passion close to an obsession," he once said.

At the end of the interview, I asked the master when and what would make him click the shutter.

"Instinct, sensation, and most importantly, the pleasure of the eye," he said.


Life Behind The Camera

Born in 1937 in Lyon, France, Marc Riboud took his first pictures with a small Vest-Pocket camera his father gave him during the Great Exhibition of Paris in 1937.

From 1945 to 1948 he studied engineering and worked in a factory. After a holiday, during which he took pictures of the cultural festival of Lyon, he abandoned engineering for photography.

In 1953, Life magazine published his famous Eiffel Tower photograph and he joined Magnum agency after meeting with Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa. Capa later sent him to London to "see girls and learn English." He didn't learn that much English but photographed intensely. Riboud became one of the first generation of Magnum photographers.

In 1955, he crossed the Middle East and Afghanistan to reach India, where he stayed a year. He then headed to China in 1957, becoming one of the few Western photographers in the country at that time.

After three months in the then Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) in 1960, he followed the independence movement in Algeria and Western Africa and in 1968-1969 he was one of the few photographers allowed to travel in south and north Vietnam.

Riboud has published many books, including "The Three Banners of China" and "Marc Riboud in China."

In 2004, his retrospective featured at the Maison Europeenne de la Photographie in Paris and attracted more than 100,000 people. Many museums in Europe, the United States, China and Japan regularly display his works.