Many people are familiar with images of China’s past. Looking forward, a sad reality is the sameness of modern cities and modern city life, wherever they are located. Images from one modern city often look similar to those from any other modern city.It is the present time that is of greatest interest in China. Transformations in China create images that will embed themselves in our consciousness and will become emblematic as future reference points for this period of Chinese history.China is changing rapidly. China is modernising and internationalising at a pace that is unique in human history. Yet China is not blindly copying Western models, but is developing its own unique Chinese way forward. These developments are changing the face of China’s major cities and the lives of the people. The ways in which the Chinese interact with each other, and with their living and working environments, are being transformed even more so than the physical environment.These overlapping transformations – in both physical and social environments – are of great interest to the artist. It is this over-riding theme that is at the heart of this solo exhibition. Transformations in Chinese life, with glimpses of future patterns, provide the emphasis.We are all influenced by our background and our experiences. We come with pre-existing cultural stereotypical images. These may come from art, from cinema or television, from advertising or from any medium where images are used.However much I want to see China through Chinese eyes, my images are infused by the images I have grown up with, images from artists whose iconic status seared themselves into my consciousness and act as reference points against which my own images are positioned.There is no one correct method of art, nor of photography. For me, photography is not about perfect representations of reality but a modern art form. It is about textures, shapes, colours and – most important – the feelings they elicit in the viewer. Shapes are reflected through geometries, relationships and juxtapositions of the component parts, with light and shade, shadows and reflections overlaid on this structure.My own background is in Western artistic traditions and my images reflect these. The images in this exhibition reflect influences from a range of Western artists, from the Dutch master Vermeer (whose use of low lit interiors were highly distinctive), the French impressionists, and the 20th century abstract painters such as Mondrian. Yet the style is very much my own. I do not always explain the background of my images – how they came to be taken or even the objects actually photographed. They are meant to elicit a range of responses and each observer will create his own version based on his or her own “image bank”, established (sometimes subconsciously) over a lifetime.All the images in the exhibition were taken in China, and especially Beijing and Shanghai. The Last Cry is an exception; it is universal in its message.2007 Martin Bloom Photograph Solo Exhibition will open on September 9 to October 6, 2007 at The Potential Gallery,No. 2 Jiuxianqiaolu, 798 Dashanzi Art Center.