SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- A host of photographic works by contemporary Chinese artists are on display at Festival Pavilion at Fort Mason, San Francisco.

The event, which features dozens of photography pieces by contemporary Chinese artists of several generations, offers collectors on the U.S. West Coast access to artists and galleries never before seen in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The photo exhibition debuted leading Chinese and other Asian galleries including M97 Gallery in Shanghai and ShanghART Gallery that operates studios in Beijing and Singapore, as well as Three Shadows +3 Gallery with studios in both Beijing and the southeastern city of Xiamen.

Featured is a photo by distinguished Chinese artist, Hai Bo, whose works are present in museum collections across the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Getty, one of the world's largest artist organizations.

Hai Bo's highly conceptual photographs document the changing social, economic and environmental climate of contemporary Chinese society.

One of his masterpiece works on display, The Southern, reflects upon ordinary and mysterious scenes in southern China, containing elements from the past to the present, from reality to dreams.

A representative of the exhibitor from Shanghai, who preferred to remain anonymous, said this was the first time for her studio to come for the show in San Francisco, with a few works from four of their artists.

"Two of the artists were born in the 1970s and the other two in the 1980s," she said.

Citing a piece of the photography works, which was titled "Bird's Head," she said it was the latest series of a dual-artist group whose works have been exhibited in cities like Venice.

The two artists, both born in the 1980s, show a casual attitude in life and would take a shot of anything intriguing to them in their daily lives, she told Xinhua.

"They just want to break the stereotyped concept of many people about photography, so they would add some colors and drawings to the surface of their photo products," she said.

"They want to express something new about photography in their minds, away from the traditional view of photography," she added.

Clement Cheroux, senior curator of photography of SFMOMA, said the museum has a long tradition of collecting and exhibiting works that represent the range and diversity of non-Western photographic production.

"Currently, we are working to expand our collection of contemporary Chinese photography," he said.