Shi Yan Lang, Tong Jian Quan (Through the Shoulder Fist), 2008

For the first time in history, the notoriously guarded warrior monks of the fifteen-hundred-year-old Shaolin Temple—a Chinese Buddhist sect dedicated to preserving a form of kung fu known as the "vehicle of Zen"—have allowed their secretive society to be documented.

Justin Guariglia earned the trust and full collaboration of the Shaolin monks, to create an astonishing, empathic record of the Shaolin art form and the individuals who consider themselves the keepers of these traditions. This amazing work by one of today's most promising photographers provides a rare opportunity to examine the energy and spirit of Shaolin's unique Zen practice. The work examines the nature of qi, the concept of an elusive universal energy. The title Tong Jian Quan is loosely translated as "through the shoulder fist."

Archival Pigment Print
Paper Size: 11 x 14 inches
Image Size: 10 1/4 x 13 inches
Edition of 50
Signed and numbed by the artist

Justin Brice Guariglia (b. 1974, Maplewood, New Jersey) received a Bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University in North Carolina in 1997. He lived in Asia for nearly a decade but now resides in New York City. Justin Brice Guariglia is an artist known for his exploration of the relationship between humans and the natural world. He has worked for National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, and Newsweek. Justin Brice was nominated for the International Center of Photography’s Young Photographer Infinity Award, received an Eddie Adams Workshop award, and was named by Photo District News as one of the top “30 Young Photographers under 30.” Guariglia’s most recent solo exhibition was “HUMAN KIND NESS” at Pratt University, Brooklyn, NY, in 2019. In 2021, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Climate Fellow and Special Envoy to the Ecological Crisis Pratt School of Architecture and Urban Design; and Senior Fellow and Artist-in-Residence, Woodwell Climate Research Center, Falmouth, MA, USA. Justin Brice often collaborates with philosophers, poets, scientists, and writers to better understand human impact on the planet.