Since 2009, the French collector and artist Thomas Sauvin has salvaged discarded negatives from a recycling plant on the edge of Beijing, negatives that were destined to destruction. His Beijing Silvermine archive, one of the largest archival projects in China, now encompasses over 850000 anonymous photographs spanning the period from 1985 to 2005, thus allowing the reconstruction of a large part of the history of popular analogue photography in the country. This unceasingly evolving archive provides a visual platform for cross-cultural interactions, while impacting on our collective memory of the recent past.
Thomas Sauvin won the prize for the Exhibition of the year at Lianzhou Photo Festival in 2013. His work has been exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Photography of Chicago, the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Art, and the Guangdong Museum of Art.
Over the ten seven years, Thomas has published 15 photo books with the Archive of Modern Conflict (UK), Jiazazhi (CH), Skinnerboox (IT), The M Editions (FR), VOID (GREECE) as well as self-published artist books. His publications have entered the collections of TATE, the V&A, the Bibliotheque Nationale de France and the Pompidou Museum.
自2009年以来，法国收藏家、艺术家苏文(Thomas Sauvin)持续从北京郊区的一家回收厂回收废弃的、即将被销毁的底片。他的北京银矿档案库是中国最大的档案项目之一，迄今为止收藏了85万多张1985年到2005年期间的匿名照片，重建了中国流行的类似摄影的很大一部分历史。不断演变的档案库为跨文化互动提供了视觉平台，同时也影响着我们对不远的过去的集体记忆。
苏文于2013年获得连州摄影节年度展览奖。作品曾在芝加哥当代摄影博物馆、北京中央美术学院、广东美术馆展出。
在过去的十年里，苏文与现代冲突档案馆（英国）、假杂志（中国）、Skinnerboox(意大利)、The M Editions(法国)、VOID（希腊）等出版社合作及自出版了15本艺术书。他的作品已被泰特美术馆、V&A博物馆、法国国家图书馆和蓬皮杜博物馆收藏。
EXHIBITIONS
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• November 2020 - January 2021, “Сребърна мина / Silvermine”, Synthesis Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
• September - October 2020, « Until Death Do Us Part » & « World Park », Breda Photo, The Netherlands
• September 2020, « Kensuke Koike & Thomas Sauvin - No More No Less », Festival Images, Vevey, Switzerland
• February - March 2020, « Kensuke Koike & Thomas Sauvin - No More No Less », IMA Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
• October - December 2019, « The World Park », Insitut pour la Photographie, Lille, France
• March 2019, « World Park », Collective exhibition « LOVELOVELOVE: A Journey in LOVE », Today Art Museum, Beijing, China
• February 2019, « Until Death Do Us Part », Collective exhibition « Probabilité 0.33 », Musée Nicéphore Niépce, Chalon-sur-Saône, France
• November 2018, « No More No Less » (collab. Kensuke Koike), Salon Approche, Paris, France
• July 2018, « Until Death Do Us Part », Collective exhibition « Probabilité 0.33 », Marseille Provence 2018, Marseille, France
• June 2018, « From publications to exhibition », Festival Portraits, Vichy, France
• May 2018, « On This Day » (collab. Klara Källström & Thobias Fäldt, FG2 Gallery, Gothenburg, Sweden
• December 2017, « No More No Less » (collab. Kensuke Koike), Guangdong Museum of Art Image Triennial, Guangzhou, China
• April 2017, Collective exhibition « Autophoto », Fondation Cartier, Paris, France
• November 2016, « Thomas Sauvin (Beijing Silvermine)», Paris Photo, France,
• September 2016, « Hand-Colored », Singapore International Photography Festival, Singapore
• September 2016, « Hand-Colored », Festival Images, Vevey, Switzerland
• June 2016, « Beijing Silvermine », Promenades photographiques, Vendôme, France
• April 2016, Collective exhibition “Here’s looking at you », Shanghai Center of Photography (SCOP), China
• February 2016, « Retrieved », SF Camera works, San Francisco, USA
• November 2015, « Clap your hands », Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, China
• October 2015, « Until Death Do Us Part + Beauty and the Beast », CAFA, Beijing, China
• September 2014, « Silvermine + Lunar Caustic + Recycled », Gallery Paris-Beijing, Brussels, Belgium
• September 2014, « Silvermine: by the water », Festival Images, Vevey, Switzerland
• January 2014, « Archive State », Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
• January 2014, « Beijing Silvermine », 4A Center for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, Australia
• June 2013, « Beijing Silvermine », Salt Yard, Hong Kong
• March 2013, « Beijing Silvermine », FORMAT Photo festival, Derby, United Kingdom
• October 2012, « Beijing Silvermine », Singapore International Photo Festival, Singapore
• April 2012, « Photographic Oddities from the AMC », Caochangdi Photo Festival, Beijing, China
• September 2011, « Beijing Silvermine », Dali Photo Festival, Dali, China
AWARDS & SHORTLISTS
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• 17 18 19, VOID
Nominated for the Best photobook of the year (international category), PHoto España, 2020
• No More No Less (full set)
Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Prize of the photobook of the year 2018, La nuit du livre 2019, Paris, France
Shortlisted for the 2019 PhotoBook Awards by Aperture and Paris Photo (Aperture)
One of Simon Baker's best Photobooks of 2018 (Photobookstore)
Best photobook of 2018 by Sean O'Hagan (The Guardian)
Forrest Soper's favorite book from 2018 (PhotoEye)
Favorite Photobook of 2018 by Francesca Seravalle (Lens Culture)
• No More No Less, The (M) Editions
Prize of the photobook of the year 2018, La nuit du livre 2019, Paris, France
• Xian / 线
Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Nominated for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, 2017
Entered the collection of Hirsch Library /The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2017
Entered the collection of Pier 24, 2016
Entered the collection of BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France), 2016
Entered the collection of Musee de l'Élysée, 2016
Entered the collection of Tate Britain, 2016
Entered the collection of Getty Images, 2016
Entered the collection of Fondation Auer Ory, 2016
• Until Death Do Us Part / 双喜
Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Showed in the inaugural hang of the Victoria & Albert museum’s new Photography Centre « A History of Photography: Daguerreotype to Digital » from october 2018 to september 2020
Selected as one of the "Greatest Photo Books of All Time" by Source Photographic Review issue N°88, 2016
Nominated for the Best Photobook at the Fotobook Festival, Kassel, Germany, 2016
Entered the collection of BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France), 2016
Selected as one of the Photo-Eye Best Books, 2015
Selected as one of the New York Times Best Photobooks, 2015
• Silvermine Albums
Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Selected as one of the "Greatest Photo Books of All Time" by Source Photographic Review issue N°88, 2016
Entered the collection of BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France), 2016
Nominated for the Deutsche Börse Foundation Photography Prize, 2014
Nominated for the Best Photobook at the Fotobook Festival, Kassel, Germany, 2013
Shortlisted for the Paris Photo Aperture Foundation First Photobook Award, France, 2013
• METV
Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Entered the collection of BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France), 2016
• Quanshen / 全身
Entered the collection of Centre Pompidou, 2019
Entered the collection of BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France), 2016
Selected as one of the Photo-Eye Best Books, 2013