Chinese photographer Li Zhensheng, known for capturing the realities of the Cultural Revolution, has died in the U.S. at the age of 79.

Li worked as a photographer for the Heilongjiang Daily during the Cultural Revolution. During his time at the newspaper, Li captured scenes of the decade-long period of political upheaval, and kept close to 100,000 photographs hidden under his floorboards.

Li brought the images with him when he moved to the U.S. and later published them in a book, Red-Color News Soldier.

According to the Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, which published the Chinese version of Li’s book, a friend of Li’s confirmed his death due to cerebral hemorrhage on Chinese social media app WeChat, adding that Li’s family did not wish to be disturbed.

A post on the CUHK Press’ Facebook page included a quote from Li: “The reason for recording history is to avoid tragedies from repeating.” The post also referenced Li’s belief that preserving the works of those who have documented history is the best way to memorialize them after their passing.

Li was born in Dalian in China’s Liaoning province in 1940. He graduated from the Changchun Film School in 1963 and started working for the Heilongjiang Daily. Li had said that taking photos of the Cultural Revolution was difficult as red guards suspected him of being a spy.

Since the images were considered sensitive at the time, Li hid the negatives under the floors of his home in the autumn of 1968. They did not see the light again until 1996, when Li moved to the U.S.

His book, Red-Color News Soldier, was published in 2003 and attracted great attention. It is currently available in six languages. The Chinese version, published by the CUHK Press in 2018, contains close to 300 photos. Li said at the time that he would bring his book one by one to the mainland, where his photographs were still banned.

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