Octogenarian models on Li River

86-year-old Huang Quande and 76-year-old Huang Yuechuang are brothers living in Guilin, south China’s Guangxi. Last year, Guilin karst landform was selected as a world heritage site. Since 2003, Huang Yuechuang has started his business of taking photos with tourists. In 2008, his elder brother Huang Quande joined him as fishermen models after he left the acting team of Impression Liu Sanjie, which was directed by Zhang Yimo.

The two brothers all grow beards and have the typical and traditional Chinese senior look. As time goes by, they became “professional” models in the Li River area. Photographers who have taken their photos are all over the world.

But being a model is never an easy job. The two brothers have to wake up very early every day, taking photos with tourists and posing for photographers. They need to constantly cast nets, light the lights on fishing boats, and row bamboo rafts. They also have to train partridges and mend the fishing nets. In order to work with foreign photographers, they even have to learn English.