[Photo by Jun Cheng/provided to China Daily]

His journeys through the Great Rift Valley are portrayed in the five-episode TV documentary, A Place Torn Apart, that aired on the Hainan province-based Travel Channel in 2016.

"What Jun Cheng has presented is his love for the land where the human race was born," veteran French photographer Jean Turco said at a recent contemporary art forum in Beijing.

"Of course, these are photos, but they are beyond photos: They are beautiful episodes in Jun Cheng's great spirit."

China Photographic Publishing House's director, Zhao Yingxin, says: "He doesn't aim to capture instability in the villages (in East Africa). There is serenity in his work. Anthropology gives his photography a broader horizon. He's a persistent thinker who retrospectively examines humans' past and looks to the future."