Kevin Frayer is an award-winning Canadian photojournalist who has covered conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East. In 2013, he moved to China, became a father and joined Getty Images as a freelance contributor.
"The periphery is where I feel most comfortable," he told Instagram. "That can mean, literally, the edges of a city or country, or the minority fringes of a culture. More figuratively, the periphery is a place that requires a journey – a turn down a road for no reason, or a chance conversation that changes one's course.
"In my photography, I'm trying to take people to a place far different than where they are from, and hoping they feel something new by learning that this other place exists."
In this gallery, IBTimes UK shares some of Frayer's photos of daily life in China. To see more, follow him on Instagram.
Retired Chinese men sit on a bench outside an apartment complex for pensionersKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesAn elderly Chinese man flexes his muscles as he performs a martial arts routine for onlookers on a street in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA man exercises on outdoor fitness equipment at a park in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesWomen buy balloons outside a bar in Hebei Province, just outside BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA singer performs to an empty bar as a server waits for customers in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesDrag queens and performers get dressed backstage at the Chunai 98 club in NanningKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesDrag queens perform at the Chunai 98 club in Nanning, Guangxi Province, southern China. The club holds performances by a small group of cross-dressing Chinese men, and has gained some local acceptance as views on sexuality slowly evolve in modern China. Many of the performers come from small cities in other provinces, having left their families in search of tolerance, employment and a sense of communityKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA Christian convert is baptised by a Pastor during a ceremony at an underground independent Protestant Church in Beijing. Officially atheist, China places a number of restrictions on Christians and allows legal practice of the faith only at state-approved churches. The policy has driven an increasing number of Christians 'underground' to secret congregations in private homes and other venues. Some estimate there more than 65 million Christians inside China with studies supporting the possibility it could become the most Christian nation in the world within a decadeKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesYoung Catholics sit in pews as part of a summer camp at the government-sanctioned Xishiku Catholic Church in Beijing. There have been no official relations between China and the Vatican since 1949. The Catholic Church in China is split into two avenues of worship: a state sanctioned Church known as the Patriotic Association that answers to the Communist Party, and underground Churches where worshippers are loyal to the Pope in RomeKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA woman sells festive hats in a beer hall during the 24th Annual Qingdao International Beer Festival. The city is home to Chinese brewery Tsingtao and draws hundreds of thousands of drinkers over the course of the festivalKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesChinese girls wearing party dresses eat ice cream in front of a butcher's shop on a residential street in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA man washes his young son in a bowl on a street in a residential neighbourhood of BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA barber cuts a child's hair on the street in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesCondensation forms on the doors of a barber shop on a cold evening in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA man reads a newspaper as he waits for customers at a streetside bicycle repair shop in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesCommuters crowd onto a subway car on the metro during rush hour in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesAn elderly woman stands outside her farmhouse, near a new housing development in Hebei ProvinceKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesLabourers walks past new apartment buildings under construction as they leave work after their shift at a site in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesMigrant workers wait in a bus as they leave after their shift at a construction site in Beijing. It is estimated that there are more than 40 million construction labourers in China, many of whom come from smaller centres to the country's larger cities to find workKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesWorkers sort old televisions and computers to be recycled in the Dong Xiao Kou village on the outskirts of Beijing. Once a small farming community, the village is now little more than an enormous rubbish tipKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesVendors wait for customers at their market stall in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesParamilitary police officers stand guard below a portrait of the late leader Mao Tse-tung in front of the Forbidden City at Tiananmen Square on the anniversary of the crackdown and subsequent massacreKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesParamilitary security force officers walk past couples sitting near Tiananmen Square in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA food vendor fans himself as he dozes in the heat on a summer evening in BeijingKevin Frayer/Getty ImagesA woman breaks the newly-introduced law by smoking in a Beijing shopping areaKevin Frayer/Getty Images
