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China to get close look at Pilbara art

Hugh Brown's Beneath the Milky Way, Pardoo, Pilbara, WA.

Photographer Hugh Brown has been mining the Pilbara in his own way for the past 16 years and now he is exporting the best of his work to China.

The Darlington photographer's images of the Pilbara's ancient landscape, its mining industry and its diverse people are showing in three galleries across China over the next three months.

Brown specialises in capturing images of people, places and occupations undergoing rapid change, which is why he has been drawn to the dynamic Pilbara.

His exhibition Aspects of a Vanishing World features more than 90 images captured after painstaking effort and patient endurance in the harsh conditions.

"A number of the photographs shown here took many days of waiting," Brown said. "Two images were captured within half an hour after 17 days waiting."

In 2005, he survived being struck by lightning during a big dust storm.

"I got whacked in my vehicle just after photographing a lightning storm," Brown said. "The vehicle got me to Marble Bar until I switched it off to fuel up. Then it was out of action for three months while they got parts from Japan."

Brown said many of his images reflected a bygone era.

"The key driver of what I do involves the documentation of history, changing landscapes, towns, industries, people and their stories," he said.

"The photographs illustrate some of the wonderful people I have met since 1998. They incorporate a mix of gold prospectors and underground miners, helicopter pilots, cattle station owners and managers, Aboriginal artists, traders, alcoholics and others."

Aspects of a Vanishing World opens at Ningbo Museum of Art and Culture on Friday before moving to Hangzhou and Shanghai.