Gabriel Safdie turns his lens on a nation’s people with Faces of China
November 5, 2026 • WestmountMag.ca
After more than four decades of travel, trade and friendship across China, Montreal-based author and photographer Gabriel Safdie is publishing a portrait of the country unlike any he has produced before. His new book, Faces of China, gathers some forty years of portrait photography into a single collection – and this time, the story is told not through landscapes or markets or machinery, but through faces.
Safdie will celebrate the release with two launch events featuring a slide show and Q&A: Sunday, November 22, from 2 to 4 pm at Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 McGill College Avenue in Montreal, followed by a second launch on Friday, November 27, from 1 to 5 pm at the Haskell Free Library & Opera House in Stanstead, Quebec.
The book fulfills a project Safdie had been circling for years. As recently as last summer, he described a companion photography volume to his memoir as a work still taking shape – “tentatively titled Faces of China,” focused exclusively on his China photography. Now completed, it arrives just months after that memoir, Affair with China, itself the product of a lifetime’s observation.
A businessman’s eye
Safdie’s route to Chinese photography ran through commerce. As head of the Montreal-based textile company Safdie & Co., he travelled to China regularly for nearly half a century, often combining business with photography, exploration and cultural immersion. That vantage point gave him a rare firsthand perspective on a society transforming itself at extraordinary speed.
Faces of China spans the full reach of that experience. The collection moves from the bustling industrialized cities of China’s eastern coastal corridor to the remote, sparsely populated regions of Xinjiang, Tibet and Inner Mongolia. Each photograph captures not simply a face, but an individual shaped by a particular place, culture and moment in history.
… Faces of China, gathers some forty years of portrait photography into a single collection – and this time, the story is told not through landscapes or markets or machinery, but through faces.
The portraits were selected for their individuality and their relationship to their surroundings. From ordinary encounters to unforgettable expressions, they collectively form a rich visual tapestry of human experience — what Safdie calls an appreciation of “the character, resilience and diversity of the Chinese people.”
“It is especially gratifying to present such an exciting collection of characters that represent an array of people from all corners of China, its minorities, social classes, from the youngest to the oldest, and so on, as depicted in their own natural surroundings of their homes and workplaces,” Safdie said.
A continuing affair
Faces of China builds directly on its predecessor. Affair with China, published by John Aylen Books and launched in April 2026 at Montreal’s Blue Metropolis International Literary Festival — where Safdie appeared in conversation with acclaimed Canadian writer Charlie Foran – chronicled his extensive travels from the 1980s through the 2020s, documenting the country’s rapid modernization, its enduring traditions and its contradictions.
While the memoir examines the transformation of a nation, the new book focuses on the individuals who lived through it. Together, the two volumes offer complementary perspectives on China’s evolving identity: the sweeping forces of history on one hand, the deeply personal experiences of its people on the other.
The man behind the camera
Born in Jerusalem, Safdie moved to Montreal at 13. He studied at McGill University, the University of British Columbia, the University of London, and the Sorbonne in Paris. A former teacher and editor, he later directed his family’s textile business – a career that brought him into sustained contact with China through international trade, and that gradually matured into a profound personal engagement with the country’s people, history, art and culture.
An accomplished photographer and writer, Safdie has presented eight major photographic exhibitions in China. He is also a pillar of cultural life in Quebec’s Eastern Townships, as founder of the Centre des Arts de Stanstead.
The Stanstead launch carries a note of homecoming. It marks Safdie’s return to the historic Haskell Free Library & Opera House, where he launched Affair with China in May 2026. Situated directly on the Canada–United States border, the Haskell – a recognized national historic site – provides a fitting setting for a celebration of photography, literature and cultural exchange across boundaries.
… a visual and personal record of more than four decades of Chinese history and culture, one face at a time.
Both launches offer readers a chance to meet the author and hear the stories behind the photographs – a visual and personal record of more than four decades of Chinese history and culture, one face at a time.
Sunday, November 22, from 2 pm to 4 pm at Paragraphe Bookstore, 2220 McGill College Avenue, Montreal
Friday, November 27, from 1 pm to 5 pm at Haskell Free Library & Opera House, 1 Church Street, Stanstead, QC
To RSVP for either launch, visit gabrielsafdie.com
Images: courtesy of Gabriel Safdie
Read also: Gabriel Safdie launches retrospective book on China
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