As a photographer, it’s never been easier to get one’s work out into the world. Get a blog, use Flickr, click publish. As such, the world is drowning in imagery. So to make work that is distinctive, to separate oneself from the tens of thousands… is extremely difficult.

As such, I’m thrilled report that while you’re about to see a few images from Hong Kong- based photographer Kurt Tong, thousands of people around the planet have already been able to appreciate his work too. Kurt has blown up over the last year or so, and has been honored by Jen Bekman’s Hey Hot Shot, Foto Fest, the Blurb Photography Book Now contest, the Magenta Foundation’s Flash Forward contest, and many other venues.     He’s exhibiting in several places in Europe this summer as well.

And he couldn’t be a nicer person, having founded an NGO to help disadvantaged children in South India in 1999. Kurt and I met at Review Santa Fe 09, and he graciously agreed to show a few images from his 2009 series “In Case it Rains in Heaven” here on Frontier Worship. You can read his statement below the photographs.

In Case it Rains in Heaven (2009)

Paper offerings for the dead

Traditionally, many Chinese believe that when a person dies, he leaves with no earthly processions and it’s up to their descendants to provide for them in their afterlife until their reincarnation.

Joss paper, made from coarse bamboo paper, is burnt as offerings for the dead. Some believe that the money will enable their ancestors to live lavishly in the afterlife; others believe that the money is used to bribe the guards and the Black judge of the afterlife in order to escape early.

In the last 50 years, more and more elaborate items are made out of paper as offerings for the dead. Cars, servants and houses were common sights at funerals. As consumers’ culture takes over China, Joss products have become more and more outrageous. While this practice is officially banned in China, it has always been tolerated.

Some see the offerings as compensations for what a person never had during his life-time, many considered the items as a reflection of the values of the living, of our society.

The images in this project are some of the products currently available to burn for the dead.