Dad And Daughter Taking Photos For 40 Years in Same Place

Dad (Hua Yunqing) And Daughter (Huahua) Taking Photos For every 40 Years in the lake of Zhenjiang. 

When a young Chinese father was photographed on holiday with his one-year-old daughter he had no idea he'd begun an enduring family tradition.Hua Yunqing, 62, was photographed with his daughter Huahua while on a day trip to a local beauty spot and liked the picture so much that he has since returned to the same location every year to repeat the photo.

Over the following 35 years Hua and his daughter Huahua, 36, would take the same shot every year beside the same lake in Zhenjiang, a city in eastern China's Jiangsu province, showing the little girl growing up, her father slowly ageing and the scenery around them changing as time passed.

In fact during their 35 years of taking the pictures they have only missed one year, in 1998 when Huahua missed the trip to the family's favourite lake. As he and his daughter have grown, their changing lives are documented in the photographs and not purely because the pair are ageing.

The photos capture the changing fashions and capture Huahua's journey into adulthood and then motherhood, as her own children started to be snapped in the annual shot. Hua who posted the photos taken at Taying Lake online, said recreating the image each year has since become one of the family's customs.

I didn't have any thought of doing the same thing again but when I got the photo back, I liked it so much that when we went back the next year I repeated it. 'After that it became sort of the family tradition and we did it every year with only one break in 1998 when my daughter did not join us for the family holiday and was abroad.'

Hua added that the photos have documented his daughter's growth from a small baby to a child, into an awkward teen, a pretty young woman and now as she becomes a parent herself.'When I started I never guessed that I'd still be doing this when I was in my 60s and my daughter is now no longer alone, she is a mother-of-two.'

He said he was not expecting his family to continue the tradition forever but after posting images online he was delighted with the positive reaction.