Artist's Statement

Oliver Klink

Cultures in Transition explores the changes that people go through, the subtleties that make their life evolve, their spiritual guiding light. In the past 15 years focusing on 5 Asian Countries, I observed the continuity between family, work, and spirituality. There was no separation. This fluidity of life is at the core of Cultures in Transition. Geir Jordahl, my publisher from True North Editions wrote: “Klink's pictures are dreams manifest – they become representations of our past, present, and future. His photographs are of exotic places and people, yet they connect deeply to what it means to be human. They are about survival. They are about hope. They are about the Spirit, Heart, and Soul in us all. From Anne Wilkes Tucker: "Both Klink and I hope that family histories and some of their traditions will travel with the younger generations as they leave the rural for the urban. Given their low incomes, it is unlikely that rural families in China have been able to document their lives with photographs or even on paper, of which there are shortages in many rural schools. Maybe Klink’s images, given to the sitters, will be used later to spark memories, just as they have for his in-laws who left China decades ago."