Cao Haidong collected more than 400 original works of foreign photography masters, travels to places over the world to collect art with his wife every year

By Zhao Tong

ne recent morning, when we walked into the gallery of Cao Haidong, everything in front let us see another type of life and elegance.

The moment the host opened the door, what we saw first was the giant black and white photo of American popular singer Lady Gaga. The work which was hung on the empty wall is called ‘bondage of love’. Its photographer is the most influential photographer in Japan Araki Nobuyoshi.

As a photography lover, Cao Haidong has collected more than 400 original works of foreign photography masters. Among them, the most expensive one is worth 80 thousand U.S. dollars.

Cao Haidong said that up to now it was still difficult to see the classical original works in China, it was a great pity, that was the reason he was willing to pay a lot to collect photos.

When we asked about his collection standards, Cao Haidong said that the first point is love, because only when he love it he had the impulsion to ‘occupy it’. A kind of sincere and bitter sadness hides behind Araki Nobuyoshi’s work, which is what moved him.

In the present, Cao Haidong who has worked in clothing industry for close to 40 years has enterprises in China and other countries, and holds the posts of Nantong CPPCC member, president of Nantong chamber of commerce in Myanmar, vice president of Chinese invested companies chamber of commerce in Myanmar. However, despite the busy work, he still takes some time to go to places over the world with his wife Zhao Xia, feels the wonders of life in ‘travel and photography’.

In 2016, as the first person who drives abroad for travelling in Nantong, Cao Haidong drove a car from Xinjiang, to central Asia, reached Lake Baikal in Russia. The beautiful scenery on the way and local culture provided endless source materials and left many pleasing works.

Cao Haidong told us that travel let him get to know many interesting and intelligent photographers. Now, in his ‘group of friends’ there are American photography master Roman Loranc, Paul Caponigro, Michael Kenna and Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.

Cao Haidong said, ‘business is just to make a living. The exciting thing in life is ample and wonderful spiritual life. As a result, influencing other people in my way is something I love to do.’