article_snippet: (CNN)When Chinese photographer Wang Wenlan first pressed the shutter on a borrowed Soviet camera in 1967, Wang Wenlan was a teenager taking photos to kill time during Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.
article_snippet: The photographic paper was left over from printing Mao's portraits," Wang told CNN.
article_snippet: Five decades later, Wang, 61, is one of China's top photojournalists.
article_snippet: One of Wang Wenlan most famous series of photographs tracks China's relationship with the bicycle -- once a family's most precious asset but now fast vanishing from the streets.
article_snippet: Photography was an outlet for Wang during the dark days of Chairman Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution, when China was convulsed by violent class struggle.
article_snippet: Despondent, " Wang wandered around Beijing with friends in similar situations, snapping pictures and portraits to distract " Wang.
article_snippet: Taking photos turned into more than a pastime in January 1976, when Premier Zhou Enlai died - beloved by many for Premier Zhou Enlai role in tempering the worst of Mao's excesses.
article_snippet: Wang went to Tiananmen Square with Wang camera, capturing the unprompted outpouring of grief, both then, and again in April that year.
article_snippet: From then on, Wang saw that his camera was much more than a memory keeper.
article_snippet: In the decades following, Wang has photographed not only major events -- from Tangshan Earthquake in 1976 and the overthrow of the Gang of Four, to the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 -- but also intimate moments captured in China's changing countryside and growing cities.
article_snippet: Back then, its broke the mold, using large photographs rather than the stamp-sized images used in most other Chinese newspapers at the time, Wang says.
article_snippet: Wang said Wang used to focus on the technical and artistic aspects of photography, but now, with smart phones, Wang says anyone can be a photographer.
article_snippet: Next year will mark Wang's 40th year in photojournalism.
highlights_snippet: Wang Wenlan has been a photojournalist in China for almost four decades .
  
highlights_snippet: Wang Wenlan most famous series of photographs tracks China's relationship with the bicycle .