China – Camera Obscura

Why do Chinese love photography

Michele Galeotto — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 17:47:15 +0000

An engaged couple on-set
© Unknown
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If you’ve ever been to China you should know how Chinese are crazy about photography. It’s not just a stereotype depicting Chinese tourists in Europe snapping thousands of photos in a day; it is the truth.

It’s a fact that photography often happens while traveling, especially when abroad. It is not a case that the photography market in China exploded right after the middle-class reached the possibility to visit foreign countries. When in the late 20th century the Korean and Japanese tourists floods overwhelmed Europe, we were amused by the thousands of photos they were able to shoot in a day; nowadays we are surprised by the number of cameras and lenses Chinese tourists can bring along with them. There are some differences. Japanese tourists have usually a more introspective approach to their photos, they are mostly shooting at themselves, and this is why they prefer compact cameras. Their Chinese counterparts live instead photography as a tool for ‘sharing’ their experiences within their circle and community, this is why besides the status symbol of owning the flagship camera of the range, Chinese choose (D)SLR cameras: it adds value to the photos they share. In this Chinese tend to show the behavior of a social collective mind.

Tiananmen Square in the 1960′s (Via Weibo)
© Unknown
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In my college years in Tsinghua I was amused by the number of SLR cameras my classmates had, all of which costed at least twice the country’s average per capita income. With my 400 euros Olympus I was their joke. A few years back a meme appeared on the Internet: “摄影穷三代，单反毁一生” literally “third poor photographers generation, reflex cameras ruin lives”, and a photo of a beggar-looking middle aged man looking into the viewfinder of his expensive camera. These memes testify a real passion Chinese share about photography, and how they wish to spend a lot of their income in order to purchase professional cameras with good lenses.

The average Chinese amateur photographer strives to reach formal perfection. Blurred images, which are common in fields such as street photography, are not easily recognized as good shots in China, even tough they might be very expressive. This is also a reason why the average middle-class photographer alway tries to buy the best lenses and the best accessories.

Family Stuff 家当
© Huang Qingjun
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I have been wondering for a while now at why is photography such a big thing in China and I came to the conclusion that since China is a fast changing country, people feel the need to fix their memories and stop for a bit the impetuous flow of time. Without time for reflecting, only with the dry sound of the shutter mirror. And this must be the reason behind the huge request for wedding photography in China. The 798 art district, the Shichahai Lake, parks like the one of the Summer Palace or Beihai, kitsch architectures like the european style Chateau Changyu, are among the most popular backgrounds of beijingers’ wedding shots. In the past thirty years the working and living pace has been growing faster and faster, and with speed a sense of precariousness comes along.

Everything is fading away. In Chinese mega-cities friends move in and move out, most of the young Chinese must themselves often relocate for college, far from their parents and childhood friends, and then most likely move again after graduation. Here comes the need to stop the time flow. Back in 2011 while I was doing a workshop with some students from Swiss EPFL in 798, Beijing, (here andhere) to understand people’s behavior within that area I had to conduct a small series of interviews to some couples that were going to marry and have a wedding photo-shooting in there. All the couples I interviewed stated that they wanted to keep a memory of their youth. Of course, this is the reason behind beauty and wedding photography in every culture, but the proportion of the phenomenon in China has reached a proportion that is well described by LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury goods conglomerate, investing in a Chinese wedding photography company.

Panda Zoo
© Xu Bing
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When everything changes so fast photos can be reminiscent of a long forgotten past. This is what happened when an old color photo of Tiananmen Square was uploaded to Weibo, a Chinese Twitter-alike social platform. This is why many Chinese photographers felt the moral duty to go to the countryside and capture the last faces of a rapidly disappearing rural China.

But besides the need for recording today’s memories, in a country where pollution, savage industrialization and wild urbanization are threatening the concept of beauty, there is also the need to (re)create a forgotten beauty. Like in Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities Marco Polo says (quite ironic isn’t it), “The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space”. This second way can be pursued through the lens of a camera, leaving all the daily ugliness outside, while only keeping what fits the viewfinder, maybe further improving it through postproduction.

New Landscape
© Yao Lu
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Chinese leaders have always put a big emphasis on photo retouching, from Mao’s era to the 18th National Party Congress, and so do Chinese youngsters. The market for selfie-retouching apps has grown so big that real-life make-up companies have started to market themselves after them. If life is memories and we rely on photos to remember, photography can be a powerful tool to dramatically change our lives.

All this can be real fun, but sometimes reality suddenly comes back, slammed on our faces, and photography can still be there, reminding us not to believe what we see at first glance, but to dig deeper. The panda-looking pigs of Xu Bing’s Panda Zoo (熊猫动物园, 1998. 徐冰) and the Chinese-traditional-landscape-looking trash of Yao Lu’s New Landscapes are here to remind us that everything is a mere illusion, but we must cope with that.

You can find a shorter version of this article on Michele Galeotto blog.

This is Shanghai, by Rob Whitworth

Rob Whitworth — Fri, 05 Jul 2013 15:19:32 +0000

Text, photos and video by Rob Whitworth.

Speculative… It’s a tricky concept, essentially it means working for free in the hope of being paid later. The main advantage is it allows you to work free from any restrictions or client demands. It also means no client help with regards to funding, location scouting, favours and budgeting.

My previous two city videos have also been speculative and fortunately have yielded decent returns. On the back of their success I got the chance to meet with some very interesting people and JT Singh was certainly one of them. We met in Singapore last October. JT is a ‘City Branding Specialist’, essentially he loves cities and is passionate about helping them achieve everything they can. He was in Singapore working on a project and we had a good meeting.

His next stop was China and he was very keen to build a portfolio there. As part of that process I would produce a video that presented the core values and features of a city as part of a bigger branding process. And then the word ‘speculative’ came up again. The idea was to gain traction in China we could produce a video of Shanghai, to make Shanghai itself and other cities take note.

The timing was good, as regards to both my availability and the weather, and the trip was booked up for early March. Spring and Autumn are the best months in Shanghai where the weather is clearest. I booked in 15 days shooting. This was something new for me, as I would be arriving green not only to Shanghai but to China as a whole. Previously I had only shot cities I already knew very well.

The trip got off the an eventful start when my hotel room was broken into in Saigon the night before flying out to Shanghai. Fortunately the thief opted not to take the small case with all my camera kit and laptop in, choosing instead to steal my shoes and a bag of some of my camera accessories. I’m not sure what use size 12 shoes are to a Vietnamese guy but I’m sure he had a plan. I’ll be on the look out for him next time I’m in town.

Whilst it was lucky nothing mission critical was taken it did mean I arrived in a chilly Shanghai wearing flip-flops…. Working with JT was a blessing arriving in a new city, he had done a huge amount of reconnaissance prior to my arrival, as well as having a great knowledge of the city. I’m careful to do as much online research as possible prior to arriving but it’s no substitute for the real thing.

The first few days were spent mostly walking around, in some discomfort. Sadly finding large shoes in China wasn’t the easiest thing. The first pair I chose were great but sadly one size too small. Fortunately Spring had just arrived and the weather was great. Within a few days of working together I had a pretty good idea of key locations and things we wanted to feature, as well as a reasonably comfortable pair of shoes. We worked together on a provisional story board and now all that was left was capturing it.

Shanghai is great, a really exciting city. Something that did very much come in handy (somewhat surprisingly) was speaking no Chinese. It quickly became apparent that all that was required to make it past doormen and security guards was an impatient look and a point upwards. Without exception, to avoid awkward situations, they were all to keen to let me through and sometimes even escort me through the security gates.

Some of the views we found where truly breathtaking. A couple of the stand out moments were the Nanpu bridge at dusk and Jin Li Gap Jia (huge road junction). I believe there is a quality to seeing something for the first time that can be lost with return visits or when you live in a location.

The shooting was carried out over 15 very long days. The weather came good with a mixture of the classic Shanghai fog and some beautiful clear days. Being based in Singapore at the time the cold came as a bit of a shock but one of the advantages of a heavy camera bag is you tend to stay warm when walking.

A key shot was getting a sunrise looking towards Pudong from the Bund, the iconic view of Shanghai that back in the early 90’s was just marsh land. Somewhat dispiritedly, on two previous occasions when I arrived and started shooting, the sky decided to cloud over shortly after daybreak. Days were running out. Thankfully on the penultimate day the sun shone and the sky remained clear. We now had all of the planned shots.

It seems to me the realities of being a photographer are that most of your time will be spent not on location but staring at progress bars on computers. The video was processed and assembled over the following three weeks.

The stand out sequence for me is in the middle of the video. Over 6 seconds there is a fake powercut with the lights coming back on, the camera exploring the seen day and night before falling to the ground and hyperlapse along the street near Yuyan gardens which switches once again from day to night before taking off again and arriving on a rooftop overlooking the Bund and Pudong. It took 11 hours in post, that’s excluding shooting and initial processing. It was great seeing something you’d meticulously planned take shape on screen. The process was further made eventful by a hard drive failure and some food poisoning…

Then it was done. In many ways I find this the hardest part is letting go. I’m lucky to have a close group of friends and family that I can show my work to that are happy to give me their honest thoughts and most importantly their suggestions. Once the video had made it through critical appraisal it was time to hand over to JT to market the video and find some backing.

JT had been keeping in contact with the Shanghai Municipal tourism department. Upon first viewing of the video they seemed disinterested however a few weeks later, much to our surprise, they decided to sponsor the video. They requested an inevitable few changes but thankfully were happy with the power-down sequence.

This brings us to the present. The video has received over 800k views wordwide to date, it went viral on release being picked up by a number of major news sites and getting over 300k plays in the first seven days.

The concept of copyright in China is, shall we say, not as established as in the Western world. The video has been widely uploaded to Chinese social media; just this weekend I found an upload on a Chinese video site with 300k views. The numbers are crazy, when a million people watch something if only 0.001% contact you to express an interest that’s still 1000 people. Anyway it’s still early days but hopefully the next big commission will be not far away… maybe it won’t even involve the word ‘speculative’ next time…

Please visit Rob Whitworth website for more photos and time lapse videos.

China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers

Marine Cabos — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:38:13 +0000

Old Factories #1, Fushun Aluminum Smelter, Fushun City, Liaoning Province, 2005
© Edward Burtynsky
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

Text by Marine Cabos, photos by Nadav Kander, Edward_Burtynsky and Ian Teh.

I have always enjoyed experiencing landscape as well as contemplating all sorts of pictorial representations of it. To me, depicting landscape is a mean by which a photographer attempts to understand the mystery of nature, while trying to understand his/her own place within it.

Chongqing I, Chongqing Municipality
© Nadav Kander
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Although I do not have any kind of creative talent whatsoever, I have always been eager to watch, speak, and write about art. I guess this is one of the main reasons why I decided to plunge myself into Art History with a special focus on photography. Indeed over the past six years I developed a keen interest in photography and especially photography depicting China’s landscapes throughout the centuries.

Farmland. Linfen, Shanxi, China.
© Ian Teh
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Since then I could not stop searching for photographers that have extensively worked in China, whatever their origins. One day I came across the powerful artworks created by Edward Burynsky, Nadav Kander, and Ian Teh. When I saw their photographs for the first time, I immediately asked myself to what extend these Westerners can participate in the shaping of China’s image? One might find this question puzzling at first especially if one assumes natives would necessarily provide a “truer” gaze than outsiders. But to me (as for many people specialised in the field of photography of China) there is no such thing as a consensus in what constitute core elements of ‘Chinese photography’; instead I am more interested in the variations of photographers’ gaze through the depictions a common subject matter.

Bao Steel #8, Shanghai, 2005
© Edward Burtynsky
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

These three photographers created compelling images representing China’s landscape in its largest sense. By that I mean their notion of landscape does not only refer to the natural world, but also to places that range from man-altered to industrial zone, cityscape, cultural landscapes and other types of sceneries. Let me introduce briefly what they managed to photograph when they were in China.

Chongqing II, Chongqing Municipality © Nadav Kander
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Over his twenty-five years career, the Canadian Edward Burtynsky (born in 1955 in Canada) developed keen eyesight of man-made alterations upon nature caused by the pursuit of modernization, which he conscientiously captured across Northern America. Burtynsky’s anxiety to engender the audience’s awakening of such disrupted sceneries leaded him to China, where he engaged in a series of photographs depicting human and environmental costs of the tremendous economic boom China is undergoing. For five years starting from 2002, Burtynsky explored the ‘Middle Country’ by scrutinising on the one hand the urban revolution with his series Urban Renewal, on the other by following the industrial production processes: from the collection of energy with his series on the Three Gorges Dam; the human labour with Manufacturing; the steel producers with Steel and Coal; the collapsed heavy industry due to mid-90s restructuring with Old Industry; the ships production in ports with Shipyards; to finally the recycling process with Recycling. His large-sized photographs offer a paradoxical commentary vacillating between deadpan and bleak impressions on the China’s changing landscape.

A new luxury residential development built next to a an industrial complex. Linfen, Shanxi, China.
© Ian Teh
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

Regarding Nadav Kander (born in 1961 in Israel), his contribution to the shaping of China’s landscape was also significant. His Yangtze series – which resulted from five trips initiated in 2006 – shows an interesting account that mingles the pictorial tradition of portraying the river sceneries, and an unavoidable social commentary about the unnatural development within natural settings and its consequences on the population. Although he tried as much as he could to maintain a distance because of his awareness of being an outsider, Kander ultimately re-enacted individual and collective sentiments of rootlessness commonly felt by not only the Chinese he met, but also himself as an Israeli-born South African living in England. His photographs propose a journey navigating by the river on traditional boats, walking across broken bridges, ending in nearby cities with leisured people.

China Recycling #9, Circuit Boards, Guiyu, Guangdong Province, 2004
© Edward Burtynsky
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

Finally, the Chinese-British Ian Teh (born in 1971; based in London) also experienced China since 2006 through a solo initiatory journey in which he wanted to discover the industrial hinterlands. His series Traces: Dark Clouds offers photographs of Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Liaoning and other provinces across China. Teh chose these specific places for they revealed another side of the so-called ‘China’s miracle’: the environmental sacrifices of perfecting the country and their side effects left for the future generations. Apparently Teh continues to work on China according to three of his projects entitled Merging Boundaries (in which he looks into the Sino-Russian and Sino-Korean limits), The Vanishing – Altered Landscapes and Displaced Lives on the Yangtze River, Tainted Landscapes 1: Birth to a New Coal Power Station, and Tainted Landscapes 2: Heavy Industry in Linfen, China’s most Polluted City.

Chongqing XI, Chongqing Municipality
© Nadav Kander
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

It was quite a shock to discover their work; needless to say that I immediately fell in love with them. At that time I just arrived in London and I was visiting randomly galleries near Old Street. I ended up in the Flowers Gallery where I had the chance to meet Chris Littlewood, the Director of Photography. I talked about these three photographers (who were all exhibited at least once in the gallery) and asked him if he thought they were creating divergent and/or similar representations of China. Chris replied that:

The riverbed of the Kuye River, a subsidiary to the Yellow River
© Ian Teh
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

“On the one hand they obviously explored a common subject, yet all possess a different gaze. Kander for instance took a very indirect, poetic, personal approach opposite to documentary considerations. His Yantze series reflected an atmosphere that embraced a wide range of sensations and feelings, such as alienation or sadness. Contrarily, Burtynsky’s gaze is direct, almost rough, highly distanced – literally and judgementally. The magnitude of his panoramic photographs mingled documentary and pictorial approach to landscape through which he strived to provoke sustainability awareness. As for Teh, his method to first spent days in the place in order to gain trust and proximity with the people, then taking photographs recall somehow journalistic practices. Ultimately, the trio engaged in a ‘China-centric’ photographic dialogue that possesses highly intuitive and pictorial dimensions, thus leading the viewer to be visually overwhelmed and trapped.”

Manufacturing #18, Cankun Factory, Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, 2005
© Edward Burtynsky
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

Chris’ insightful comments enhanced even more my passion about landscape photography of China. In truth although these three photographers belong to different cultures (thus assumedly possess dissimilar cultural conditioning) they nonetheless share astonishing similarities. First, they reify the timeless Western attraction for China cultural and aesthetic paradigm. Second, all combine with verve highly aesthetic and documentary-inflected viewpoints so that to create panoramic photographs, which transform urban or natural landscape into paradoxical sites of quietness, unsettledness, alienation, and sublimity at the same time. Third, none of them dictate an easy answer to such destructions; instead they aim to leave the spectator free of deciding whether there is any ethical implication.

Yibin I (Bathers), Sichuan Province
© Nadav Kander
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

Rather than affirm their gaze as condemnations of Chinese harsh disruption of either natural or urban landscapes, they have chosen a more insightful path in problematising their photographs’ capacities of showing diverse intuitive and emotional responses to another culture environment, which eventually appear relevant in both Chinese and global contexts. Ultimately I also believe Burtynsky, Kander and Teh shed light on the existing links between China and the West.

For more visual stories about China, please visit Marine Cabos Photography of China.

Urban Renewal #6, Apartment Complex, Jiangjun ao, Hong Kong, 2004
© Edward Burtynsky
Please visit China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers for the full size image.

Interview with Yuan Yanwu

Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞) — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:02:30 +0000

13 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Following interview by Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞) and Yu-hui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Yuan Yanwu: Since I became interested in covering photography report in my early stage of learning journalism, till now I work on arts, to me ‘photography’ has evolved from its original sense; it is becoming an inconclusive concept. I am not sure whether I should still call myself a ‘photographer’, because during my work in recent two years, a ‘camera’ is no longer the precondition for creation. What is relevant to ‘photography’ is the photographs used as the original source (they are not necessarily taken by myself). For example, some times ago I used a digital camera to copy the old photos in my home, now I scan them directly to the computer and do the post production on the screen. When I held my first personal exhibition ‘Youth Self Portraits (part 1)’ in Paris, the post production is all based on photos, i.e. I combine the photographs and post production together; but in current projects, I almost use the ‘Brush’ tool only in Photoshop – I usually create multi layers over the original photo layer, and reproduce it in a way of painting (in a nutshell it is similar to the method of “tracing in black ink over characters printed in red” as a way of learning calligraphy). When the work is finished, I will delete the original photograph layer; that is to say, the final image is like being hand painted with brush completely, and there is no trace of photograph at all. I haven’t got an idea of how to define the work I am doing now. Although the process of ‘photography’ has been omitted from my actual practice, the final work is a creative duplication of the original photograph, and it has an unbreakable relationship with ‘photography’.

16 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
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Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Yuan Yanwu: I was born in Yansi Town, Huizhou County, Anhui Province in February 1976, which is the current Huangshan city. There is a village named Xixinan 10 km away from Yansi; that is where my childhood memories are stored, till now my grandma still lives in this village. After I was eight I moved to Shanghai to live with my mother’s parents. After I graduated from high school in Shanghai, I studied Journalism and Communications in Nanjing Univeristy from 1994 to 1998, and worked in the photography department of Xinmin Evening News back to Shanghai after graduation. Five years later, which is in 2003, I quitted my job and came to study in France. At first I studied in Institut Français de Presse in Pantheon-Assas Paris II University, then I did Bachelor and Master studies in the Department of Photography in the University of Paris VIII. Now I live and work in Paris. The contrast between my childhood memories in the village and the city life after I was eight; the history of my family; my life experience between the western and eastern culture – all these have immense influence on my work today.

2 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Yuan Yanwu: When I was studying journalism in Nanjing University, we had a course on news photography; at that time internet was not as popular as today, and I was very much attracted by several books translated from the west, which were about the leading figures in photography. All of a sudden I felt that news photography was more real and persuasive than words. Therefore I decided to work as an editor in the photography department of a press after I graduated. In the meantime I also did some interviews on photography; that was my first acquaintance with photography. Gradually I found that news photography was not enough to satisfy my desire of self-expression; at that time I also wanted to study abroad to see the world outside China, thus I chose France, the place of origin of photography. When I studied in the University of Paris VIII where both theory and practice were emphasized, I got to know the history of western photography, photography theories, aesthetic etc. Of course there were also practice on photography techniques and creative work. They all changed my understanding of photography. Possibly like many other students of photography, my works at that time were deeply influenced by the documentary style of School of Dusselfolf (for instance, I like the portrait works of Thomas Struth very much). The very strict techniques of this school (front view, keeping certain distance with the subject, neutral, no emotion at all, etc.) is completed opposite to the attitude of photography reporting in my previous knowledge.

Food (Jing)
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Then I gradually found that this so-called neutrality and objectivity by this school is just a method of expression. To quote the opinion in the book ‘Style Documentary’, ‘documentary’ here is a technique only, a style; it doesn’t represent the true record of the reality, and photographer can even obtain the style he/she wants through dark room and post production. Gradually, my photography practice has been transferred from the previous focus on onsite photography, to the emphasis on post-production. My photography work for Bachelor graduation is called ‘Food’, which is composed of over ten diptychs. On the right are portraits of every single person, and on the left is a dish made of the people photographed. From this work we can find the trace of documentary photography in terms of expression techniques. Meanwhile, I had started to do reproduction by employing post-production techniques, for example, simplifying the background of the portrait, adjusting the colour to make it more balanced, outstanding, and also clearer. The food also renders a very clean and light style after many ‘reproduction’ processes. This work aims to present the relations between food and the existence of human beings, therefore I put them together, and present people and food with the same size and weighting. In my works after that, post production takes up an ever bigger portion.

Elsewhere (Yan)
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

In ‘Elswhere’, I changed the indoor space of the subject according to my imagination, and did a lot of adjustments to the character. In ‘Double bind’, based on the real figures I created their virtual twin brothers and sisters. All these can be seen as my course of practice in using post-production techniques. In ‘Youth Self Portraits (part 1)’, seven portraits in my childhood were from the old photos in my home; originally they were not portraits but family photos. I can say that since this series, I have begun to search for new direction of creation: memory, time, reality, imagination, truth, fiction, closeness, distance…. Probably to me, ‘photography’ means ‘from the reality’ but ‘exceeds the reality’. ‘Photography’ is not that far from imagination and fiction.

Double bind
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

What is quite interesting is that after I studied photography, I began to seek inspiration from modern painting. The theme of my dissertation for master studies is photographic painting – ‘photo painting: from figuration to transfiguration’, the subject of research was not photographers but painters, to be exact those painters who use photographs as ‘models’. The painters of this school can be traced back to the Pop Art in the 50s and 60s in America, with Photorealism as representative (the realism painting of the early Chinese painters who studied in the States, for example Chen Yifei and Chen Danqing, have certain relationship with this school). Then we have Gerard Richter from Europe, and many modern painters who draw based on photos, who draw paintings according to the images downloaded from internet, who paint magazines and screens, etc… indeed there are countless painters. It is fair to say that in recent ten years, figurative paintings have found resource and inspiration from photographs and multi-media techniques, and gained new life. When I came to France in 2003, I visited the exhibition held in Strasbourg Contemporary Art Museum which retrospects the history of photorealism in USA. At that time I was not quite familiar with art genres because I didn’t specialize in art studies, but this exhibition gave me very deep impression, and I didn’t expect that my own work would be impacted by that. Another impressive exhibition was the personal exhibition by David Hokney in the National Portrait Gallery in London. I very much like the colour and the airiness of his works, and also his themes – portraits of his family and friends, the ordinary life scenes… there is a long list of artists. When I travel in Europe and other places, visiting local galleries, art museums is one of my routine assignments.

When I was in China, I focused on journalism, and my job was also in the journalism arena; it was after I came to France that I actually started to work on art. This experience is quite interesting for me to take a look back at the Chinese art as well.

14 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: I have the feeling that more and more young people have heterogeneous formations they might have quite diverged educational backgrounds and experiences and -as a consequence- their professional career starts later, which has a deep impact on their lives. For example in your case you evolved from photojournalism to art, and you also moved to a foreign country. It seems to me this is symptomatic of a trend in all capitalist countries, trend that can have important social implications.What is your point of view about this question?

Yuan Yanwu: My personal feeling is that whether a professional starts his or her career at an early stage is closely linked with their own personality and life experiences. For some people, they got mature thoughts about their career path very earlier on, and they didn’t experience many setbacks, so they start their career very early. But for some people, they become to get clear of what they want to do at a relatively later time. I think the most important thing is that as soon as you set your target, you should be firm and keep moving towards that goal. It’s really nice if you can do just one single thing very well. The trend you have described is very common in the capitalist countries, and I think this is also quite common in modern socialist countries, for example, China. The young people nowadays have a lot of choices; what subject they learn in the university does not have to be a speciality he or she works on for their whole lifetime.

5 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Yuan Yanwu: I work very slowly, on one hand I am a slow-paced person, on the other I am perfectionist in terms of work. If there is no deadline I might never be able to finish ever. I am not sure how my works should be categorized. From the visual perspective, they are more aligned to the photorealism in painting (the difference is that I use computer to paint). Also there are many people think they belong to Pop Art. In terms of theme, my works bear relatively strong autobiographical sense. I spend most of my time in front of the computer screen; this is a much enclosed work style, a bit like writers. My source comes from the existing photos; when I choose from them, usually it is those amateur, imperfect photos that give me inspirations and surprise. After they are re-produced, those imperfections become the highlights. This is very common in my current series.

I think it is a bit early to define my works, because it has been just over two years to devote myself in art works. What I present now is only the above water part of the iceberg. I think to define the works of an artist, you can’t just view the beginning; rather, you should look at the entire course, including his or her life. Plus, definition is usually done by others.

15 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Yuan Yanwu: As I have mentioned earlier, questions like the type of camera, techniques and skills etc. are not quite important in my current work; what’s more important is post-production. Thus, what matters more is the computer screen, Palette Graphics and final output. Simply speaking, the main technique I use is to draw on the screen with brush tool, and the colour of each stroke comes from the colour sample corresponding to the original photograph. Then I choose the parameter of brush, it’s just like painting, only with photographs as references for duplication. I use the imac workstation which specializes in graphic processing with a super large screen (I can only use the computer but I don’t know much about it, and I can’t remember the model and size either), and WACOM graphic tablet and pen.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Yuan Yanwu: Of course techniques and skills take up a certain proportion, for example, without the super-size and high pixel screen, without the graphic pen, I cannot do any work at all, and probably I wouldn’t be able to present the style as you see now. If I hadn’t been using the brush tool to process photographs for a long time, I wouldn’t be able to paint with it like this. Although it is a virtual tool, it does have differences in terms of speed, weight and style. In the beginning I couldn’t even draw a straight line, let alone draw a photograph with it. However, if the work itself is vague and the message it delivers (i.e. the content) is absent, it doesn’t mean anything to copy a photograph only.

9 years
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yuan Yanwu: I like the boldness and dynamic of the contemporary photography in China¹, also the richness of imagination, experiment in techniques and huge potential. But what I don’t like is sometimes it is quite utilitarian and money-driven.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yuan Yanwu: As I have mentioned previously, my works are autobiographical in nature, and I hope they can be accepted by the international community.

I think artists are free from restrictions of nationality. No matter what is expressed in his or her works, he or she is representing something common of the entire human being.

Mother
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Yuan Yanwu: Firstly it depends on what type of photography career we are talking about. If it has an intimate relationship with the objective world, the role of geographic location can’t be neglected. But if it is pure artistic creation, I think in modern world today, the photographers/artists can live in any places on the earth, as long as they can keep in touch with the outside world in time (via internet, mobile phone, etc.); also they can walk around when necessary. I think this might also be the way of life for most artists today.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it’s important to have a blog or a website or a blog? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread contemporary photography?

Yuan Yanwu: I don’t have a blog; I only have a personal website. I think no matter what kind of media we are using, the accessibility of your work on internet is rather important. English is the Global Language, so I think English is enough if it is not targeted at specific audience. In my opinion, internet plays a key role in facilitating the communication between the photography world in China and that of the west. In particular, via internet we can access a lot of information in China: exhibition information, critiques, personal websites of western photographers, blogs, etc., and vice versa: it is the same case with western photography world.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Yuan Yanwu: During these years when I am abroad, the information I have received about art world and photography community of contemporary China (mainly art world) is mostly from Europe, which means, an inarguable fact is that Chinese artists are receiving more and more attention in the international community. There has been a rapid development of the domestic art circle (including painter village, artist camps, etc.) and art market (galleries, art centres, etc.). In Beijing there are Song Zhuang, 798, Caochangdi etc.; in Shanghai there are art studio in Taixing Road, Moganshan Creativity campus, the art street of Duolun Road, art galleries residing in the Bund area, and emerging exhibition centres and art centres etc.

Regarding the relationship between art world and business community, these two circles have complicated and intertwined connection, no matter where you are and what time you are in. Art cannot be developed without the commercial world, and nowadays art now increasingly becomes part of the business community.

I also want to add one point, which actually has nothing to do with the art and photography world – the commercial photo studio in China (artistic portrait, wedding photography) is a unique phenomenon that doesn’t actually exist in the west; it should be quite interesting if we research on that.

Elsewhere Yan
© Yuan Yanwu (袁燕舞)
Please visit Interview with Yuan Yanwu for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Yuan Yanwu: On my bookshelf there are ‘The Art History of China in 20th Century’ published by Peking University Press, ‘Black White Grey, A, Conscious Cultural Stance’ published by Hunan Fine Arts Press.

Last year when I went back to China, I found several quite good magazines, which are very helpful for understanding China’s contemporary art. For example, Art China, LEAP – The Bilingual art magazine of contemporary art, Art Map, Art Today, Hi Art, etc.
There should be a lot of blogs, but I have not been familiar enough to make any recommendations.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Yuan Yanwu: Lang Jingshan. The reason is because his works will withstand the test of time.

Please visit Yuan Yanwu website for more information and photographic painting.

Here I need to clarify that when talking about the contemporary photography in China, I mostly refer to the photography that belongs to art category.

Interview with Yan Ming

Yan Ming (严明) — Tue, 24 May 2011 22:05:01 +0000

Interview with Yan Ming (严明) and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Yan Ming: Photography is the way that I experience my life.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Yan Ming: I was born in Bengbu, Anhui Province, and I studied Chinese in university. Now I live in Guangzhou, China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Yan Ming: I had worked in music industry for ten years after I graduated. I worked in Southern Metropolis Daily from 2001 to 2007, and The Southern Daily from 2007 to 2010. Now I am a freelance photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Yan Ming: My work is an experience; where I am unrestrained as I observe and watch. I am unrestrained, and I do not imprison myself with restrictions. As long as I can get to it, the location of my photo shoots is any place in China. I’m willing to be just a laborer as I photograph the worlds that I love best- ordinary people and the natural world. I want to calmly look upon this ever-changing era with modern eyes. I hope that I can always retain sincerity and that I will work with purity and trueness. While others fear that their work is not western or trendy, I worry that my work is not Chinese or classical. China’s unique culture, history, nature, and the persevering spirit that I inherited from my ancestors has shaped my style of photography. It has led me to feel what changes and what doesn’t.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Yan Ming: I am using Rolleiflex 2.8F film camera, and I use it to take black and white photos. I will enlarge the photos in the darkroom manually, but I don’t do any manipulation on them.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Yan Ming: The image itself and the material media by which it is presented are both important.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that the Chinese contemporary photography is different from the Western one? If yes what are those differences and how do you explain them? Do you think we can speak of a “Chinese school” or photography today is globalized?

Yan Ming: The aesthetic habit of Chinese people is different from that of the west; this leads to the difference on the selection and presentation of landscape and subject comparing to the western photographers.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has evolved over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Yan Ming: The sense of calmness, subjectivity, and distance has been strengthened in the Chinese modern photography. Some works are gradually detached from the control of the system and ideology which have been in place for a rather long time. We have to admit that this is a move towards the global trend.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yan Ming: I like the elements of classics, serenity and romanticism in China’s photography. I don’t like those works that aim to preach mechanically, those incendiary works to simply arouse people’s emotion, and those that report on the social system and service.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Yan Ming: I would like to be able to make living from photography without having to find another job.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Yan Ming: Geographic location is not important at all. In China, the problem is whether you can be in the right status to take the photographs. Time availability and economic condition is a precondition. For example, in order to keep ends meet, some photographers cannot enjoy even for 15 days of a year taking photographs purely for him or herself. Thus he or she can only be an amateur photographer. Only after the Chinese photographers can have the basic economic conditions and sufficient time to do the artistic creation, it is meaningful to discuss the environment and future of the photography in China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it’s important to have a website or a blog? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread contemporary photography?

Yan Ming: In order to present the works in a continuous manner, blog and personal website are very important. Otherwise, it can only been seen by submitting to the media, which is unimaginable.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Yan Ming: I only know that the galleries in China are of really low quality. They cannot provide much assistance, funding, support and promotion for the Chinese photographers. They contribute little to art, but consider a lot on other matters.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Yan Ming: I love just walking, not books.

Please visit Yan Ming website for more information and photographs.

Interview with Li Wei

Yu-Hui Liao 廖育卉 — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:24:11 +0000

Camel rider, 2010
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Following interview by Li Wei (李伟) et Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Li Wei: Photography is simply taking photos. The world I have sensed, the moments that I have experienced, the people I have met. I use photography to record all of them.

A bull in the grass, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Li Wei: I was born in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia in 1976. I was graduated from Communication University of China in 2001 majoring in communication engineering. Currently I work and live in Beijing as a freelance photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Li Wei: I became interested in photography when I was in university. After I worked for a few years I quit my job and became a freelance photographer.

A couple in poolroom, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Li Wei: Recently I took a series of photographs of my hometown Inner Mongolia; it records the life of the minority people living in the border area of China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Li Wei: I use a Mamiya RB67 and 120mm colour film to take photographs. The portraits and landscape are all presented in a relatively quiet way. I make very simple adjustment after the film is scanned.

A family, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Li Wei: I emphasize more about the idea that the work itself delivers.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How do you approach strangers? Do you ask if they accept to be photographed or otherwise you try not to be noticed? What are their typical reactions?

Li Wei: For some people I might have simple conversations with them before I take photographs; but sometimes I just photograph them without notifying beforehand.

A Mongolian man, 2010
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: When you are working in China, do you think that being Chinese and -as a consequence- to have a certain invisibility compared to a foreign photographer, is a major advantage?

Li Wei: I don’t think the invisibility is that important. Taking photographs is a rather obvious activity, and many foreign photographers have also created excellent works in China.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: A lot of photographers complain about the actual situation of documentary photography. Do you think that reportage has a major crisis now and why? What an be a possible solution?

Li Wei: I have never actually thought about issues like the crisis of documentary photography today. I would rather focus on taking my photographs, since those issues are not in my control at all.

Buddhist temple, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Li Wei: It’s definitely different. I believe that photography does bear a geographical nature – from the content that is photographed, to the cultural differences.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Your point of view is quite interesting. At this time I already interviewed at least a dozen photographers and their response was rather the opposite: culture influences people’s minds, but the practice of photography in China and the West is significantly the same. Can you deepen this important argument? What are the profound cultural differences that you mention?

Li Wei: The basic function of photography is to reflect the social reality. The contemporary photography in China certainly has many photographs about China, in my opinion, this differs from the European photography and American photography. In addition, when we talk about the cultural difference, the oriental aesthetic prefers the spirit of Zen; therefore I think the cultural essence of many photographers is still quite Chinese.

Haystack, 2010
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has evolved over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Li Wei: From my understanding of the contemporary photography in China, it was used as a tool of propaganda by mass media since New China was founded, and then it evolved to landscape photography, then to documentary photography, and now it is becoming more individualistic, with a more diverse way of expression.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Li Wei: I don’t like many conceptual photographies; I think they are totally nonsense.

Mongolian yurt, 2010
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you give a more specific? What are you referring to?

Li Wei: Outstanding photographs will have penetrating power in them. Much conceptual photography seems to be quite meaningless and is very rigid and arbitrary. Without referring to the text illustration, you will not have the faintest idea what it is about. Sometimes, even after you read the illustration, you still don’t know what is going on.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Li Wei: I can only talk about myself. I hope I have enough time and energy to take good photographs – that’s enough for me.

Mongol sculpture, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Li Wei: It’s sure that Beijing and Shanghai are good places for development, because there are more exhibitions, which can help you open up your mind, and there are more art events. However, with the development of internet, geographic location is not a big restriction any more.

Li Wei: I think it is very important. A blog or personal website is a relatively fast and convenient way for other people to know your works. They can get a lot of information from it.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Li Wei: The books on photography are: the Documentary on Paper Series, which has published “Mai Ke” by Hou Dengke, “North, South” by Luo Dan, etc. Blog on photography: The blog of Ren Yue.

Nasong in Aili teahouse, 2008
© Li Wei (李伟)
Please visit Interview with Li Wei for the full size image.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Li Wei: Lv Nan. Photography is self-cultivation, and I can sense the power of his inner world from his works.

Please visit Li Wei web site for more informations and photographs.

Interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang

Li Jie (李洁) — Fri, 13 May 2011 10:29:53 +0000

Following interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang (李洁 and 张君钢) by Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Photography is part of our lives.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Li Jie, born in Shanghai in 1975; Zhang Jungang, born in Harbin in 1980.We live together in Harbin now.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We don’t regard photography as work, but rather as a lifestyle. We will bring our cameras wherever we go. We use photography to record the moments when human hearts dance with the world around – be it memories, exclamations, or compliments.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Mostly we use 135mm film camera to take photographs, I don’t mind reproducing photos; I will use some basic simple techniques on computer or in the darkroom (e.g. curves adjustment, resize, colour adjustment). I am not familiar with very complicated techniques.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Yes it is important. Any forms or messages are important.

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Photography is a worldwide phenomenon.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has evolved over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We rarely think about this type of questions; they don’t mean much for us.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We hope that there will be institutions and organizations that engage particularly in photograph album publication; there will be more exhibitions that focus on traditional photography rather than contemporary art themes; there will be more people like you who concern about the history and environment of China’s photography to consolidate the works of photographers nowadays, and help them promote their works more effectively.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: We have more freedom on internet; freedom is the most important instead of cities.

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Compared to blog, personal website is more important to photographers. But I like the media as a blog, especially in China where the mass publication environment is rather bad, internet media such as blog is particularly useful for you to speak what you want to speak about and do what you want to do – this is critically important.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: Fake magazine. If you want to know about the status-quo of photography in China, especially the folk photographers and pioneer photographers, this website is very informative.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Li Jie & Zhang Jungang: I very much like the current exhibition ‘the middle school students of the 80s’ by Ren Shulin. It presents the desire and admiration of the young bodies, which is something I really would like to photograph.

Please visit Li Jie and Zhang Jungang for more photographs and informations.

Interview with Xiaomei Chen

Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚) — Tue, 03 May 2011 14:40:19 +0000

Following interview by Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚) and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: What does “photography” mean to you?

Xiaomei Chen: To me, photography is first of all a tool of exploration and expression. The camera is my passport; it gives me a reason to travel, observe, explore and understand among different cultures and geographic locations. Because of the camera, my horizon is being continuously expanded. My cognition of this world becomes more tangible, and my feeling more real. I understand myself better, too. Each time, no matter what theme I am working on – documentary, artistic, I am always like a curious child, who tries to understand the world and herself through lenses.

In the meantime, although I no longer believe that photography can change the world, still I hope that they can provide people with visual information, and inform people of social problems, so that they can reflect upon them.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Xiaomei Chen: My parents gave me the name of Chen Xiaomei, and I changed one character by myself when I was in elementary school. I was born in Heyuan, Guangdong in China in 1974, and grew up in a traditional Hakka cultural environment. I currently live in Dallas, United States. Initially I had a degree in education, and after teaching English in a teaching college for six years, I turned to Journalism and got a Master degree in Journalism from Jinan University in Guangzhou. Then I became interested in anthropology. In 2004 I went to America and studied anthropology in University of Colorado, and obtained a master degree in anthropology in 2006. In the same year I gave up a PHD scholarship offered by the University of Wisconsin, and started my career as a photographer. I got a Master degree in photography from Ohio University in 2010. Now I work as an independent photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: How did you become a photographer?

Xiaomei Chen: I always admire artists. My younger brother is an artist and he is very gifted. I almost adore him, and I would never think that I could do creative work like him. How did you become a photographer Nor did I think I could do anything related to visual art. In the eyes of myself, my family, or friends and classmates, I am supposed to be a teacher who works with pen. Now I still write for the media in China from time to time.

The first time I picked up a camera was when I traveled to Inner Mongolia during the summer vacation of my sophomore year. I borrowed a point-and-shoot camera and took snapshots of the landscape. They are intolerable when I look at them today, but at that time I really enjoyed the process of looking at the world from a viewfinder. In 1999, I travelled to the Tibet, and for the first time I used an SLR, Nikon FM2, but I had no single idea about aperture and shutter speed at all, and of course they were just tourism photos. When I got back, the local media reported my trip and asked me to write a series of travel journals of my journey to Tibet. Along with that some photographs were published. That was the first time I publish my photos. But I didn’t think about becoming a photographer, and I didn’t dare to, because I thought a pen is easier to use than a camera.

When I studied Journalism in Jinan University, I became an amateur photographer. Since it was not my major, I knew little about photography, and there were not many materials available to learn, so it was purely a leisure activity without any restrictions. I took tourism photographs, I shot plants, and sometimes street scenes as well. Occasionally I even received some praises. When I was about to graduate, I photographed Xiaoguwei, a disappearing historic village in the suburb of Guangzhou. Later, my photos were exhibited by Jiangnanliguo in Guangzhou.

When I studied anthropology in the US, photography became a seasoning of my life, because academic research was very monotonous. I sat in on lectures on fine art photography in the department of Arts, and lectures on photojournalism in the department of Journalism. I got acquainted with Kevin Moloney, the photographer with New York Times and his father Paul Moloney. With their encouragement, I seriously started to consider being a professional photographer. In the end I gave up the PHD scholarship and became a full time photographer.

After working for nearly one year for a newspaper in Colorado, I was encouraged by Rich Clarkson, the former photography director of National Geographic, to accept the Enlight Fellowship from University of Ohio. I studied visual communication and documentary photography.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Xiaomei Chen: My job is a lot of fun, but at the same time it is very demanding, both physically and mentally. When doing academic research I felt it rather tiring and boring, and I admired people who do art because I thought their job is very easy and full of fun. But when I became a full time photographer, I find that photography is sometimes even more difficult than academic research. Doing academic study only requires hard work and accumulation, and as long as you keep thinking, you will gain achievement. However, creative art work is really hard, and accumulation might turn out to be repetition and restrictions.

A Chinese proverb says, “You cannot know the shape of a mountain when you stand in the mountain.” It is very difficult for me to judge my own work. You may want to seek comments from those people in this field who are familiar with my work. For example, Terry Eiler, the director of Faculty of Visual Communication, photographer Tom Ondrey, Bill Alen, the former chief editor of National Geographic.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Xiaomei Chen: Maybe because of my academic background in Journalism and Anthropology, basically my approach is quite straightforward. Most of my work is documentary. In addition, under the influence of photojournlistic ethics in the US, do very little retouching except the traditional dodging and burning. Generally I don’t change the original look of the photograph.

I mainly use Nikon DSLR, sometimes 135mm and 120mm films as well. I got a 4×5 view camera recently, so I hope I can do more film photography.

I like to try different ways, and I do not want myself constrained by techniques or styles.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Xiaomei Chen: Post processing is not very important in my work. Whether it is documentary or studio photography, I emphasize more the photograph per se and the message it conveys. If I want to get a specific effect, I’d rather get it from the shooting than the post processing.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: How do you approach strangers? Do you ask if they accept to be photographed or otherwise you try not to be noticed? What are their typical reactions?

Xiaomei Chen: Usually before I take a photograph, I will ask for permission from the subject. However, if I have to capture a fabulous moment that can’t be missed out, I will take the photograph first, and tell the subject that I just took a photo of him or her. In the States, most people are very friendly, and they don’t mind being photographed. But if they ask me not to shoot them, I will stop, except for some special news events, such as photographing the detainees.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: When you are working in China, do you think that being Chinese and -as a consequence- to have a certain invisibility compared to a foreign photographer, is a major advantage?

Xiaomei Chen: I don’t think I have certain invisibility as a Chinese to photograph in China. The camera itself unveils your desire to photograph. On the contrary, I think that photographing in China is indeed more difficult, because Chinese people seem to be shy in front of the camera, and meanwhile they are more alert.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think that being a women modifies the reactions people have when you take their photographs? Do you think that shooting reportage can put yourself in difficult context for a women or the danger is the same for everyone? Have you ever find your self in this kind of situations?

Xiaomei Chen: In the US, it is an advantage for me to be a female photographer and a foreigner as well. It is because a woman, compared to a man, does not pose any threat to the subject, so the subject may feel relatively relaxed. Moreover, as a foreign female, it is quite often that people are curious about me and they would love to talk to me. Therefore they give me the chance to express my friendliness, and it is easier for me to get access to photograph them.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: One of your first work was a trip to Tibet, a special autonomous region where Chinese peoples usually need special authorizations to visit it. Did you had complete freedom or you experienced any form of pressure from the authorities? More generally, what is your personal experience concerning the freedom of the press in China?

Xiaomei Chen: When I first went to Tibet years ago, rather than as a photographer or a journalist, I was just a tourist. Therefore I did not need any special authorization. Also it might be that the time and social circumstance then was rather different from nowadays, so I didn’t find any restrictions.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you describe the two projects you have chosen to illustrate the interview?

Xiaomei Chen: The photographs of these two series are projects in progress. The beginning of Zen of Fire is rather accidental — the house of my boyfriend’s mother was on fire. The purpose of this project is to explore the meaning behind disasters, and make people rethink of disasters. Laozi once said, weal and woe come side by side. Woe may be a blessing in disguise, and luck can be the next neighbour to misfortune. What I want to express is just a simple philosophy as such. Because of this project, I found myself having quite different thinking compared to the western photographers, and the influence of Chinese culture is very penetrating.

“Embrace Pain” aims to explore some marginalized American people from an anthropological point of view. I photograph them, not simply because their behaviour is quite odd in the eyes of the “ordinary people”, but because I am curious about their inner world, and I would like to re-contemplate about the contemporary society through their eyes. I want to question again “what is normal?”, and this project reveals the very fact that to me, that photography is an instrument of exploration.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: A lot of photographers complain about the actual situation of documentary photography. Do you think that reportage has a major crisis now and why? What an be a possible solution?

Xiaomei Chen: It is rather difficult to judge whether we are facing crisis in documentary photography, but it seems that we are experiencing a transition, a bit uncertain state. According to the traditional Chinese philosophy, “crisis” breeds “opportunity.” Possibly we will embrace a whole new opportunity in documentary photography, or even the entire photography realm. The only thing is that we haven’t found it yet.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think that the situation is the same in the Western world and in China?

Xiaomei Chen: Maybe there are some differences in theory and practice between the Chinese and western photography. However, in China as in the West, technological developments, changes of opinion and the economic situations influence more or less the mindset, approaches, techniques and means of disseminating photographs. With globalization the gap between Asia and the Western world is diminishing.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: More generally, do you think that the Chinese contemporary photography is different from the Western one? If yes what are those differences and how do you explain them? Do you think we can speak of a “Chinese school” or photography today is globalized?

Xiaomei Chen: I am not really familiar with the specific distinctions between the modern photography of China and that of the West. But I think unlike words, photography is a language without national boarders. It is true that the environment and culture in which we grow up will leave marks on us and influence the way how we work, but every photographer has his or her own way, no matter in the west or in China. It is difficult to judge the photographer’s nationality from an image.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: What do you like and dislike in the contemporary Chinese photography?

Xiaomei Chen: A very small number of photojournalists do staged photography, or do a lot of post processing work, and I don’t agree with that. I am not against the post production of art photography, but for journalism and documentary photography, it is better not do post production in order to reflect the reality.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream?

Xiaomei Chen: Practice photography in an honest manner, and meanwhile don’t have to be starved.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Xiaomei Chen: Geographic location is not a restriction. Restrictions come from a closed mind, as well as economic constraints.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Do you think it’s important to have a website or a blog? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread contemporary photography?

Xiaomei Chen: The blog is indeed a very personal way of expression. It can help people see and know more about the photographer’s work. But in an era when blogs are flooded, there are very few photography blogs that can receive much attention. I have a blog, but the purpose is not to promote my work, but share with friends. However, I do think photographers should have their own websites. I designed and established my own website.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Xiaomei Chen: The relation between the art world and the commercial community is very tricky. Art needs commercial support, but might be undermined by the commercial world. The resistance and attraction are going on at the same time.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Xiaomei Chen: The blog of Ren Yue, a teacher of China Renmin University, is very informative.

Yuhui Liao-Fab: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Xiaomei Chen: Gu Zheng’s fine art photography is quite in-depth. The documentary photography of Lu Guang very much deserves attention.

Please read Xiaomei Chen’s contributed article Between In and Out and visit Xiaomei Chen website for more informations and documentary photographs.

Interview with Sheila Zhao

Sheila Zhao — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:49:25 +0000

Following interview by Sheila Zhao and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Sheila Zhao: Photography is a craft that belongs to its own world. Photography allows me to visually translate and share the way I see the world.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Sheila Zhao: I was born in Beijing, China, in 1983 and spent the first part of my childhood there. At the age of 7, I followed my parents to the United States, where they have been working and trying to establish themselves. I spent the rest of my childhood and teenage years growing up and attending secondary school in New Jersey, then continued on to study at Indiana University (with frequent trips back to China in between). I graduated with a degree in journalism, concentrating in public relations, and then came back to Beijing for a three months long internship at General Motors Beijing. During those three months, I enjoyed the excitement of Beijing very much and decided to pursue a job at an international public relations agency post internship.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Sheila Zhao: After a year and a half working at the public relations agency, I realized that I was unhappy and unfulfilled working there. My mind began drifting and through a series of coincidences, I made the very impetuous decision of becoming a full time photographer.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: I think you made a courageous choice. A lot of people are scared by the incertitude of a creative profession, that is often see as difficult and precarious. How did your entourage reacted to your decision? Did they encourage you or did they tried to dissuade you?

Sheila Zhao: Thank you. Again, I would like to stress that when I decided to change profession, I was very young, inexperienced, without any proper education in photography, and without any realistic expectations. As a result, the decision I made to go into photography was, in hindsight, very impetuous and irresponsible. While I don’t have any regrets about what I did and am very grateful for everything I have learned and gained through this decision, I don’t encourage anyone to go about things the way I have. That said, I’m also very grateful for a strong support network. My parents were never, and still are not thrilled by my career choice, but I’m very grateful that at the end of the day, they are the most patient with me and the people who supports me the most.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Sheila Zhao: My photography is still evolving and still learning (I’m self taught, and there’s a lot to learn!). Where I started out is very different than what I do now. My current personal work is a bit hard to explain, mostly because I just began it earlier this year and I’m still trying to make sense of it myself. Very broadly, I guess you can describe it as a series of photos where I try to express a similar set of emotional commonality within a variety of different situations and settings.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique? Digital or film, a lot of editing or absence of manipulation, equipment used, etc..

Sheila Zhao: For my current personal work, I am shooting black and white film and do my post processing digitally.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Does the technical aspects that you mentioned are important or what really matters is only the final result?

Sheila Zhao: Personally, I think that content is always more important than what equipment you use. Of course, that’s not to say that the technical aspect is not important at all. Every decision you make, from beginning to end, all impacts how your picture will turn out. However, one shouldn’t always relay on a cool camera effect, a cool post-processing filter, or be restricted to the traditional confines of what a “good” picture is in order to create an impactful image. For me, at the end of the day, a great image should clearly show what the photographer is trying to express and if it reveals a bit of the photographer’s vulnerability.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you speak a little bit further about your recent personal work? Is it a precise project or it’s your everyday visual diary? What is your current theme of interest?

Sheila Zhao: I just began a new series of personal work from the beginning of this year. It’s difficult for me to make sense of it now as I am still very much in the initial phase of this new journey, much less provide an articulate explanation. I very much stumbled upon the work – I was visiting a friend in Pusan, Korea, and we went to visit Pusan’s famous fish market for fun. I shot about a roll of film there. When I developed the film, there were a few frames I liked, so I decided to continue on photographing fish and other aquatic food we eat at fish markets. By another coincidence, I happened to go to Japan a month after Pusan. I spent about 5 days in Tokyo and happened to be staying within walking distance from the Tsukiji fish market and continued photographing what I saw there. However, it was only recently that I realized the photos I have been taking are about more than just fish. The important thing was how I was interpreting the situation, the shared feeling of the images, and what the pictures said about me. Currently, I’m working on expanding the work.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How do you approach peoples? Do you ask them if they accept to be photographed or you try not to be noticed?

Sheila Zhao: Every situation is different. Generally speaking, I don’t like being too obtusely intrusive. Plus, I have my own issue of being a big wimp and am very shy to approach strangers. I’ve gotten a little bit better over time, but it’s still very much a problem with me. Ideally, I would love if people don’t notice me or if I already have an element of trust with the people whom I am taking pictures of, but of course that is not possible all the time. I think one just has to learn how to work with each situation and what their limits are.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that in China you have the freedom to take photo of everything or some subject is off limits? I’m thinking about both people negative reaction as well as pressures from the authorities. Did you experienced anything like this?

Sheila Zhao: Like most countries in the world, China has its restrictions. How it effects a photographer depends on the intention of the photographer and how they approach the subject. Photojournalists working in China experience the brunt of this, I think, because of the nature of their work. That said, there are other photographers and artists who make their point across with photography in more subtle, creative ways. For example, Ai Weiwei had a series of photographs he made, which showed him giving the middle finger to various famous landmarks around the world, including the White House, Eiffel Tower and Tiananmen Square.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: When you are working in China, do you think that being Chinese and -as a consequence- to have a certain invisibility compared to a foreign photographer, is a major advantage?

Sheila Zhao: Yes and no. Being Chinese (or looking Asian) generally makes you stick out less in a crowd. People will notice a white guy with a big camera a lot sooner than noticing me. However, the advantage of being a foreigner photographing in China is that some people are quicker to let their guard down with a foreigner because they see the foreigner as non-threatening. That, or they assume the foreigner does not speak Chinese and will not hassle the photographer too much.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that being a women modifies the reactions people have when you take their photographs? Do you think that shooting can put yourself in difficult context for a women or the danger is the same for everyone? Have you ever find your self in this kind of situations?

Sheila Zhao: I try not to think about my gender, or consequences of my gender, when I am working. It might be different if I am working on pictures addressing gender issues, but as I have not done that and am currently not doing that, I try not to think about it and try to listen to my instinct more. Again, depending on the context and the situation, one’s gender can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. To use another photojournalism example: male photographers might find it easier to work in high testosterone, mostly male dominated situation. However, the chances of them photographing in situations involving secluded, highly guarded women, is slim (such as “behind the veil” moments with certain groups of Islamic women). Women photographers are generally seen as less threatening while male photographers are generally taken more seriously by various non-photo related entities. So both have their pros and cons, one just needs to learn how to work with their own situation.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that your Chinese origins and cultural background are important in your photographic work and in your aesthetic vision?

Sheila Zhao: Not consciously. I have heard from some other non-Chinese photographer friends that one general style of Chinese photography is quiet, subtle pictures. Some of my previous work fall under that category, although it was completely coincidental. Maybe that is a result of similar cultural background? Who knows.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you have a wish or a photographic dream, concerning yourself as well as the contemporary Chinese photography?

Sheila Zhao: I would like to learn to lose control and let my instinct and passion guide me through my work.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a contraint?

Sheila Zhao: I think you can live anywhere you feel comfortable with, whether it’s a big city or a small town. I am personally a big city girl and won’t know what to do with myself if I’m stuck in the countryside for too long!

Sheila Zhao: It’s not imperative, but a website never hurts. Of course, it’s important for the language of the website to be in a widely used international language, but whatever the photographer can manage is more important. At the end of they day, whether or not a photographer needs a website depends more on his/ her intentions.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How Chinese photography has changed over the years? How would you describe the recent history of photography in China?

Sheila Zhao: Everyone and their mother has a camera now! A lot of hobbyist photographers have nicer equipment than I do. I think very much like the west, there is a massive flood of content and China is facing the same situation as the west concerning usage, copyright, etc.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How would you describe the artistic and photographic scene in China? Is it that there are often exhibitions, festivals, events, etc.? What about commercial photography?

Sheila Zhao: Promising and growing. While I don’t think China’s photography scene is as mature as other countries in Asia, I certainly do think that it will grow – the sky’s the limit. I’m sure there are a lot of photographers doing interesting work. And there are also photo exhibitions in Beijing and various photo festivals around China, such as Caochangdi Photo Spring, Pingyao, etc.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Which countries you are referring to? What do you think China can and should do to fill the gap and improve the situation?

Sheila Zhao: Japan has a rich photo history and has produced some of my favorite photography masters, such as Daido Moriyama, Masahisa Fukase, Shomei Tomatsu, etc. South Asian countries such as India and Bangladesh are currently also producing some very talented younger photographers. I think there are a lot of talents in China, but the general culture and awareness is not as refined. On a collective level, I think part of that is a lack of exposure to high quality work and a lack of guidance by international photo masters. Recent past history and how the country developed probably also influenced the development of photography in China. But I do think everything just takes time. International photo festivals are great opportunities for everyone involved, and I think more should be organized.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why.

Sheila Zhao: A colleague recently sent me work from Chinese photographer Qiu, which I really liked. His work reminded me of the rawness of pictures produced by photographers such as Daido Moriyama, but also has a sense of subtle whimsy.

For more information and photos please read Shifting Focus: China Roads or visit Sheila Zhao web site.

Interview with Rian Dundon

Yu-Hui Liao 廖育卉 — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 14:57:21 +0000

Following interview by Rian Dundon and Yuhui Liao-Fan.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What does “photography” mean to you?

Rian Dundon: Photography for me means taking an active role in the world. It means dedication to the pursuit of something meaningful. And it means confronting ourselves with notions of truth that are not always comfortable or of tangible benefit. Photography means reaching a state of vulnerability within oneself and recognizing that vulnerability in others.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you write a biographical introduction?

Rian Dundon: I was born in Portland, Oregon in 1980. December 23. Grew up in Monterey, California. Earned a B.F.A. degree from New York University (Photography and Imaging: 2003). I’ve lived in China on-and-off between 2005 and 2010 working as a photographer and consultant. I’m currently an M.A. candidate at University of California, Santa Cruz (Social Documentation: 2012).

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is your history as a photographer?

Rian Dundon: I started photographing in high school and pursuing it full-time since shortly thereafter. At some point while at university I narrowed my focus to working on more long-term documentary projects. Most of my current work continues to be this type of socially engaged documentary photography. I use photography as a form of participant observation and as a means to enter social realities different from my own.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you describe your work? How would you define your photographs?

Rian Dundon: I’m trying to embrace people with my photographs, trying to hold on to people in my work. Perhaps this is an impossibility, but I’m always pushing towards a certain depth of intimate meaning in my photographs. I’m desperately searching for something I know I might never find.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: How do you approach peoples? Do you ask them if they accept to be photographed or you try not to be noticed?

Rian Dundon: It’s always different but in general I try to get to know the people I photograph. I don’t hide: there is always some kind of interaction or relationship between us.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What is their typical reaction?

Rian Dundon: I believe most people genuinely like to have their picture taken.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think that the fact you are a stranger makes easier to take photos of people? Or it’s the contrary?

Rian Dundon: I try not to be a stranger. The people I photograph are people I generally spend a lot of time with and become very close to. Being a stranger in a foreign country is difficult but it also allows me to open myself to new people and experiences in a way that is hard to do at home.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: In your series “Chinese youth” you explore the experience of young people in Mainland China. Do you think that there is a fundamental difference with the youth from the western world? Or on the contrary all human beings today share the same experience? Does geographical differences are still important or the world is globalized?

Rian Dundon: That project was looking to explore universal themes of youth and self-identity: not necessarily just those brought on by globalization, but the deeper emotional experiences that we all share. That being said I think there are many important factors that shape and differentiate the lives of young Chinese. There is no single Chinese youth identity, but I do think that socio-political influences have helped shape and dictate the structure and experience of this generation of Chinese youth in particular.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Your work sometimes show difficult situations. For example “Addiction in Kunming” tells the story of heroin addiction and AIDS infection in the Yunnan province. Sometimes, here in Europe, we have the impression that the Chinese government tends to control all the informations and hide the negative news. Did you experienced any form of pressure from the authorities? Hod do you deal with this question?

Rian Dundon: I never experienced pressure or threat from the Chinese government. The Yunnan work deals with difficult issues but it’s not explicitly critical of state policy.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you say a few words about your technique?

Rian Dundon: It’s all film. I do minimal manipulation, try to keep most of the tones in a print or scan. Always full-frame (or close to it). I shoot almost everything with one lens and one camera. I try to minimize technological variables in my work. This process works for me, it keeps things simple.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Are the technical aspects that you mentioned important or is what really matters only the final result?

Rian Dundon: Of course final results depend on formal and technical aspects, as well as the theoretical. Everything matters equally. In visual art the way we physically create a final product is as important as the ideas behind it. One cant exist without the other.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you further describe your relationship with China?

Rian Dundon: As I said I lived in China on-and-off between 2005-2010, first in Hunan and later in Beijing and Shanghai. Originally my girlfriend had gotten a job there so I moved with her. I like China very much and speak Mandarin OK. I keep going back to China because of the good friends I’ve made there over the years. And the food is quite good.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it is fundamental to live in a big and important city, or -for example thanks to Internet- the city in which you live is no longer a constraint?

Rian Dundon: Many places are interesting and unique and important in their own ways. Some people prefer to live in large cities, some the countryside. The Internet has nothing to do with the tactile reality of inhabiting a place.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Do you think it’s important to have a website? Is it is essential to have it translated into various languages? How the Internet contributes to the spread of contemporary photography?

Rian Dundon: Having a website is not nearly as important as making prints and looking at them. The Internet allows our work to be seen by a vast transnational audience. But as that audience slowly becomes immune to the subtleties of photographs the Internet can also cheapen the impact of our images. I think people are less capable of connecting with photographs now. We see too many images (and as photographers we produce too many photographs). Our visual sense has dulled. I think photographers should make less pictures, but smarter ones. We need to spend more time looking at our images and thinking about what they really mean before we throw them up on the Internet. Make prints first, then worry about a website.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: What are your sources of reference for contemporary photography in China?

Rian Dundon: Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing.

Yuhui Liao-Fan: Can you tell some names of Chinese photographers that you particularly like and why?

Rian Dundon: Zhang Hai’er – Intimacy and closeness with people. I haven’t seen much of his work but what I have seen is beautiful. Li Yu and Liu Bo – Their project “13 months in the year of the dog” is fascinating. Zhou Hai – Atmosphere.

Please visit Rian Dundon website for more informations and documentary photography.

Between In and Out, by Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚)

Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 05:14:45 +0000

Text and photographs by Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚).

For a long time, I liked to look out and travel to distant places, like a dreamer.

“If there were a hell, I know you’d run there just to take a peek,” my mother once said, with great agony. She was right. If hell existed, I’d go to find out what were happening there. I am always curious about places and cultures different than what I am familiar with.

My first trip to Tibet was a turning point that pushed me to look farther out. Instead of traveling to distant places on my annual vacations, I wanted to be on the road all the time. One way to make this a reality was to be a journalist and writer who traveled all over the country – and the world, to tell stories from different cultures.

A year after the two-month trip to Tibet, I quit my teaching job at a junior college in south China to study journalism.

When I first started journalism, I had a lot of romantic dreams. I dreamed I sent articles back to magazines or newspapers from Middle East, Africa, South America…I’d ask unrelenting questions like Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci did.

It was quite nice to study and work for a dream, not knowing, or not willing to know that it would sooner or later be broken like soap bubbles. My first soap bubbles started to break soon after I got my MA in journalism, when I suddenly realized all the skills I had meant almost nothing. I finally admitted I didn’t fit into China’s media system. Besides that, I was told many times that I was like an exile in my own country.

Desperate as I was, I refused to quit dreaming and looking out. I came to the United States to study anthropology, which I believed would indeed take me to all the exotic places – as a scholar this time.

My two years of studying anthropology was eye opening. I learned a completely different way to look at different cultures. Meanwhile, I started to look at my own culture with the theories I was studying. I was trying to verify what I was taught about my own culture. I guess it was at this time that I began to look in, not only into my own culture, but also into myself, though unconsciously. My major interest was still looking out into other peoples.

In 2006, when I was about move to Madison, WI, to study for a Ph.D. degree in anthropology, I took another unexpected turn. I decided to give up my Ph.D. scholarship and became a photographer.

The decision must have been shocking to my family. No one, not even myself, had ever expected me to be a photographer. I could be a writer or professor. Me being a photographer? This was something quite strange. I didn’t even touch a camera, a point-and-shoot camera, until my second year in college!

Yet while an anthropology major at the University of Colorado in Boulder, I audited two photojournalism classes taught by a New York Times photographer Kevin Moloney. Kevin was an inspiring teacher. His enthusiasm for photojournalism was contagious. I soon found myself spending more time on photography than I should have.

Until the end of my master’s program in anthropology, I considered photography an escape from my heavy academic workload. It was fun. That was it.

As it got closer to the day to move to Madison, I grew uneasy. I was not so sure if I really wanted to spend years, maybe the rest of my life, studying one specific culture, digging theories, teaching, debating and researching. That would mean I would spend all my life at school. I had never left school so far. Even before I reached school age, I already lived at school as both my parents worked for a high school and we lived on the campus. After college, I was a teacher… How I wanted to get out of school!

As it became unbearable to think that I would spend my whole life at school – the ivory tower, traveling with a camera and entering other people’s lives seemed so intriguing and inviting. The camera would truly take me to many different places and lives and in a fun way.

As I was debating myself and tried to make a decision, Kevin said to me one day, “The Greeley Tribune (in northern Colorado) needs a photo intern.”

This helped me to make the decision. I gave up my scholarship for the Ph.D. degree and did my first internship with a community newspaper, The Greeley Tribune.

My camera was a passport to enter people’s lives. Every day, I learned something new about America and its people, which I couldn’t have from the classroom. Every day, I went to work with sparkling passion. I looked, and looked and looked… with a camera, and clicked. I was amazed by what I saw and learned.

I kept looking out with my camera and almost forgot to look in until 2009.

2009 was my second year at Ohio University, studying photography with a fellowship. By then, I was a little overwhelmed or confused by what was happening in the world of photojournalism. It seemed all the photojournalistic contests produced similar kinds of work. Winning images were usually dramas of suffering. A lot of my classmates were photographing poverty, homeless people, drug addicts, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence and other negative subjects.

I was not sure if I wanted to do the same thing, though I was sure I still wanted to be a photographer.

Anyhow, I found myself lost again.

I was stumbling and fumbling for my way to do photography.

2009 happened to be a very difficult year in my personal life, too. I was looking for my lost self. I spent a lot of time reading and thinking again. I asked about the meaning of photography, the meaning of, the relationship of life and death.

I didn’t have the answers to the big questions I asked myself, and I still don’t. But something started happening in me. I looked in more than I looked out. Photography might be more a medium to explore my inner world than to look out.

One day I noticed an incomplete skeleton dangling from my neighbor’s window. For the next few days, I found myself staring at the skeleton quite a lot. Then one evening, I borrowed it from my neighbor. I held the skeleton in my arms and walked home in the dark. It was quite bizarre, and a little scary, but I was excited.

I spent a whole week photographing the skeleton in my apartment. I didn’t have a very specific idea of what that would become. I simply followed my intuition and photographed it with an almost playful attitude. Not until I edited the images, did I realize it was a medium for me to explore the relationship between life and death. I had questioned why I existed. The question got louder, but the answer was nowhere to find. This project, titled “Between,” was not an answer, but part of the question.

Puzhu in Transition is another example photography is a medium for me to look in instead of looking out, although it is a documentary project and could be considered a historical record of the Hakka village and its people.

Puzhu in Transition is a multimedia project that includes a book and a video. It didn’t occur to me that I should photograph Puzhu, my mother’s home village, until I visited it again twenty years after my visit as a child.

I was struck by the beauty of this mountain village as if it were the first time I visited it. I was shocked by its population loss as a result of China’s industrialization and urbanization.

A few villagers recognized me. “Aren’t you that little girl who burnt your foot one summer?” They asked.

Yes, I was that little girl, and the daughter of a woman who was born and grew up there.

They were amazed that naughty little girl was now back to their village after a hiatus of twenty years. They were more curious how this little girl, later in her womanhood, could fly over the ocean to the other side of the Earth, where lives were beyond their imagination.

Because I was that little girl, they accepted me and my camera. But because I was not born there, I was not considered one of them. Yet my experiences in a foreign land made them break their rules for me so that I could witness their shrine ritual, which usually didn’t allow women to participate in.

The villagers all know my mother and her dramas when she was young. She was the first person to move to the city from Puzhu. Sometimes I wondered: Had my mother not moved away and then married my father, what would I have become? I sometimes imagined myself growing up in this beautiful but isolated mountain village. I asked many times how my fate as a village woman would be.

All my imagination was vague.

But no doubt the village is part of my identity because my mother comes from there. It is the root of my mother’s and part of mine. Documenting the changes of this village is partly exploring all the possibilities of fate and destiny, which my mother, and of course I, have escaped.

Sometimes I had to “flee” the village when several women preached to me the old Hakka values and urged me to get married and become a mother like any “normal’ woman should. Looking back, I see this as an example of my relationship to this village.

By then, the villagers had accepted me not as a guest or relative, but as a half-member of their community. However far I had traveled and however educated I was, I was still a Hakka woman and was expected to embrace our Hakka traditions and values. They considered it their responsibility to remind me of them. My escape, on the other hand, seemed to reveal my life in limbo partly as a result of being detached from the traditions.

I didn’t grasp the essence of my relationship to the village until after I started the project. Once I became aware of it, my interest to continue the documentation grew stronger. Originally inspired by anthropologist William Hinton’s ethnography about a village in north China over a span of three decades to show China’s history, I am now more certain that the documentation of Puzhu will be part of my life long journey to look into my own culture.

That said, I know a growing interest in looking in will not stop me from looking out. I recently started exploring a subject called “Apple,” trying to push my vision to go beyond limits. Though this subject has nothing obvious to do my personal history, I feel that I am looking out and looking in at the same time. Why? I can’t really explain in words. All I know is photography is my way of looking in and looking out, partly because I seem to be always in an awkward position between in and out.

They, by Zhang Xiao

Zhang Xiao (张晓) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 05:24:05 +0000

Text and photos by Zhang Xiao (张晓).

Those photos of mine were taken in Chongqing where I was working and living for four years. I had been asked to take photographs for a local newspaper. I usually took two cameras every day: One digital camera to take the photos of the local news, and one film camera to take photos for my own interest. As a photographer I weaved through the city everyday and that was how I locked those images into that little time machine. At first I was simply shooting the scene and the people I was interested in and never thought to make those photos into a serialized work. As time went on I’d taken a lot of pictures. After 3 years, I had taken over 1000 films of this city, until I quit my job and left Chongqing.

In China, every year hundreds of millions of people find work in other places. Like them I am also a drifter in a land not my own. Chongqing is located in China’s South West, and my home is two thousand kilometers away in Yan Tai, Shan Dong Province. I can only return home once a year during the Spring Festival. In China during the Spring Festival, hundreds of millions of people return home during a very short time, so the whole family can be reunited. They come from everywhere, North to South, East to West. People often lose their way during this process, losing the feeling of a real home. Lacking a sense of belonging, perhaps this is a symptom of being Chinese during this time.

There are great changes every day in China since it began opening up 30 years ago. The cities are like big construction sites speeding their construction pace to catch up with the rest of the world. Chongqing the largest independently administered municipal district in China is located at the head of Three Gorges dam. By the effects of Three Gorge project, many old towns with a 1000 year history have disappeared into the river rising. At the same time, as an economic center in the upper reaches of Yangtze River, Chongqing also has got the maximum benefit from Three Gorge project on economic affairs. Under the double influence of Three Gorge project, Chongqing has become one of the most representative cities in the process of the development of modernization of China. However the greatness of mankind derives from thought.

Them, the citizens, the workers… Each one of them has their own ordinary life, working 9 to 5, taking vacations, feeding their kids… They’ve been watching their homeland undergo a great change in the last 30 years. Now they have to face the old traditions and customs and the effects on their lifestyles’ of the rapid development of the economy. No matter good or not there’s a struggle in their hearts between the old traditions and culture, and their life will not like before any more.

This question continuously gets brought up: Was that someone you know in those photos? To tell the truth, they were all strangers even they were just people that passed close by me. Because of we are the ones of the same era. I could see more of my reflection from them when brushing against those people or through deep eye contact. They are always there in my life.

Now, it appears that many scenes are doomed to meet me. Formerly, I always regret endlessness missing a scene; even affect my mood for the whole day. Now, I am a man who let nature take its course, including life and shoot. I prefer observing the world in my own way than intervening in or arranging characters in my pictures, I do not want to disturb them. But at that moment, I always can observe their difference. That’s all my seek.

There is no doubt that the atmosphere of a city will impact people who living there and each and every move of them are closely linked the city. I have deep love for Chongqing. From the view of geography environment, Chongqing is a unique city in China. There are few flat roads in the city which built on mountains. So Chongqing named “mountains city”. Meanwhile, there are two rivers pass through the city. in winter, heavy fog rise from these rivers, which make the city sexy. I enjoy walking along the river in the morning with dolorous fog. Mountains, rivers, and fog make up special atmosphere of this city together. But under the Chinese monochromes, there is a modern big industry city. The traditional and modern reflect most incisive here.

As a press-photographer, my profession gives me a lot of help for my goods. First, the job gives me a chance of on the way, and I can meet various people who come from different levels and different experience which enrich my experience. At the same time, I can meet many interest and strange things and scenes.

Some photos are directly job-related that captured what has happened on the spot. The No.5 photo captured an accident. A truck went on a skid and rolled over before chemicals started leaking. Fire fighters were attempting to salvage passengers and the wrecked vehicle, whose yellow chemical protective suits caught my eyes making the fire fighting look more like a live performances. The No.8 photo covered an interesting story. A country guy managed to build an aero boat. He was about to take off with news reporters and neighbors standing nearby to witness this “miracle” to be happening. At that moment, whether it would be rocketing up or not wasn’t concerning people that much.

My photos unveil a fantasy world. I am so obsessed about people in the photos who behave like walking in the dream and braving out the rigors of reality. I rarely had a chance to have a conversation with them but eye contact. More often a quick click of the shutter and a dazzling flash awoke them before they could even notice my presence. By the time they realized a photo of them had got captured, I was somewhere else.

Life is tough. As Chinese economy is rocking through the roof, people start suffering from high level of stress and anxiety about possible job losses. In the never land, people would not be suffering until they got brought back to the reality. I would be happy to live with them in the never land, but not every story has a happy ending. People in the photos illustrate the breaking up of the modern Chinese social development and picture our reflection.

Shifting Focus: China Roads, by Sheila Zhao

Sheila Zhao — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:14:25 +0000

Text and photos by Sheila Zhao.

To move. The process is mysterious. It is impermanent. It is addictive. There’s an ephemeral beauty about the process of moving that has enthralled people throughout the ages. 19th century Scottish poet, Robert Louis Stevenson, once wrote: “For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go…the great affair is to move.” That, too, is my obsession and an idea captivates me.

But how do you translate a concept that embodies a deluge of complex meanings and feelings into a series of still images? The mere notion seems like a contradiction.

It was under the most mundane of circumstances that I began my project Shifting Focus: China Roads. I have been living in China for the past four and a half years (two as a corporate drone in the public relations industry, and two as a freelance photographer). During that time, I had been very privileged to have had the opportunity to travel through some of China’s furthest reaches – from the wild, dusty expanse of the Taklimakan Desert to the poetic karst mountains of Guangxi Province. During these trips, getting to and from the various locations almost always involved overland travel, and most often, on a public Chinese bus of some deviation.

And so, in August of this year, I embarked on another trip, this time through China’s southwestern Yunnan Province. My original plan was to travel overland and head northwest, from the bustling provincial capital of Kunming, to Chengdu, Sichuan, via the towns of Lijiang, Shangri-la, and Litang. The road would take me into the southeastern edges of the Himalayan range, before entering the Sichuan basin and into Chengdu sits.

My very first leg of the trip – Kunming to the popular tourist town of Lijiang – would take eight hours in a Chinese version of the Greyhound bus. It was an early morning affair – the bus left at 7:30. The summer monsoon was in full swing and gray clouds, swollen with rain, loomed low as our bus pulled away from the terminus. At the time, the land surrounding the bus station was almost stripped bare. As part of a citywide infrastructure upgrade plan, the whole area resembled one big construction site. Migrant laborers lulled in the early morning light before beginning another day of backbreaking work. Support columns for would-be expansion bridges sat obtusely in the most unlikely of places, with iron rods still protruding from their sides.

All this – as seen from a bus – seemed very otherworldly and it was a rather natural reaction to start photographing. Only from there, I never stopped. I soon became fascinated with the views that were rolling past me, at how the land was changing, and at how the people were changing. The more pictures I took and the more I mulled over what it was that I was seeing, the more interested I became in this whole idea of changing and of moving. I also began to think of how to execute and organize these pictures into something more coherent and more meaningful while maintaining the essence of what I was experiencing.

In the end, I decided to go with the most organic approach: to record the vast expanse of land that I was passing through as it was, from beginning to end, unfiltered in its flaws and beauty, as it was shown to me through my travels. This fact would be further accentuated in the editing process, which I would organize chronologically and let the land do the story telling. Through this process, I hoped to weave a portrait of China – to show this country, this massive entity of 1.3 billion people, changing before one’s eyes in all its simplicity.

Of course, it can be argued that this idea did not reek of originality. Photographers long have made images from the window of their vehicles. The most notable of such, Paul Fusco, whose work from the Robert Kennedy funeral train, is one of my favorite bodies of work and one which never fails to inspire me. That said, I believe wholeheartedly in my own project because being able to move and to document the subtle changes of this land is in a way, my own exploration of the country that I now called home.

This past October, I returned to Chengdu, Sichuan, to start another month-long trip with a writer friend from Hong Kong. Our trip would take us from Chengdu east, into the Rouergai Grassland, then west again into the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, before traveling south onto the legendary Sichuan-Tibet highway and back into Chengdu.

This time, I had a clear vision of how to continue with this project. However, difficulties arose almost from the onset. For starters, compared to the relatively populated province of Yunnan, most of the regions on our latest trip were very sparse. Dramatic scenery dominated the trip – some of the tallest peaks and mountain passes in China outside of the Tibetan Autonomous Region towered in this part of the world. This also meant few people were willing to risk their lives living on such unforgiving land. Secondly, autumn time in Western China is gorgeous – big blue-sky days with brilliant sunshine, not a cloud in the sky, and a crisp breeze that cuts through the afternoon rays. Unfortunately, the days were so beautiful that it made for terrible light (the higher altitude only accentuates this fact). Lastly, at any point of this project, I was constantly at the mercy of fate. Whenever I booked my tickets, I could not guarantee myself a window seat, much less being on an aisle with good light or interesting views.
But that said, which projects do not hold challenges and difficulties? For me, this entire project is very much an experiment, and all these challenges came within the parameters of that experiment. My solution? To try and leverage the best lighting conditions whenever possible.

One day, we boarded a local bus from the small market town of Ganzi that would take us to the gateway city of Kangding, a trip that would last a total of 14 hours. As our bus bounced through the grassland in the pre-dawn dark, I was the only soul awake in the entire bus, aside from the driver. My eyes still felt heavy from the night before, when I only squeezed in a few hours of rest, but my adrenaline was rushing and sleep eluded me. As the first sign of morning began to illuminate the eastern horizon, we drove past a placid lake. Framed by red-clay mountains, the lake’s water was the color of a deep sapphire blue. It was one of the most beautiful sites I had seen during my entire trip and I was able to catch a few fleeting glimpses of it before we moved on.

One of my favorite authors, Jack Kerouac, wrote in his legendary book On The Road: “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” And so, it is for the road whom this project is dedicated to. It is for the few seconds that I catch sight of a sapphire blue lake that I live for. That is why I cannot stop moving. That is why I am addicted.

For more informations and photos visit Sheila Zhao website.

Shanghai Zoo, by Cody Cloud

Cody Cloud — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:10:21 +0000

Text and photos by Cody Cloud.

I stopped over in Shanghai last summer on the way to visit my Grandfather in Thailand. Thought it would be a good place to do a project since the Olympics were to be held in Beijing that summer and the EXPO World’s Fair is scheduled to be in Shanghai in May of 2010. I figured it would be sometime before making it back to that part of the world, so I extended my 5 hour lay over to 6 days. After reading and hearing so much about how big Shanghai was, I was still surprised at how massive I found it to be. Shanghai felt more sophisticated than any city I had ever traveled to. For example I would go one stop on the under ground and not be able to see the tall buildings from the last stop I was at. It was crazy. The first day I set out to explore the city by foot. I got turned around, lost, and it was so hot and humid. I was feeling very uninspired. There were many new and interesting things everywhere I looked, but nothing was holding my interest.

Frustrated and hungry I found the nearest under ground and went back to the hostel. On the way in the front door I picked up one of those “Things to do” brochures for tourist, looked it over, and decided on going to the zoo. I thought that a city this big and sophisticated would equal a zoo of the same status. The only way to the zoo was on the bus.

Upon entering the zoos’ front gate, I immediately knew I had found the project I was looking for. It was very quiet, peaceful and empty. Even with the massive construction right outside the zoo. They estimate Shanghai to have a population of around 19 million people, and there was hardly anyone at the zoo except the occasional couple, small family, and the workers of the zoo. The zoo was anything but sophisticated. It felt like nothing had been done since the late sixties or early seventies. It was so beautiful. I had an overwhelming feeling of peace upon entering the zoo. I’m no animal rights activist, I just wanted to tell the story of the zoo through my eyes.

The zoo was very big and there was very little time if I wanted to complete a project on it before departing to Thailand. So for the next 6 days I returned to the zoo from the time it opened until the time in closed. It was amazing how instantly inspired and full of energy I was while at the zoo every day, alone taking pictures. That’s what photography does for me. It really clears my head and gives me time to slow down and process what I see, and often don’t understand. No one spoke English at the zoo, so for that week I was able to relax and think about each shot through my camera with myself. I wasn’t sure what I was trying to say about the zoo. I would take pictures of anything I was attracted to, but at the same time knew the photos would need to relate to one another in the end.

I would often be the only human in a two story building full of different species of monkeys. Or the only one at the lonely hippo exhibit. It was amazing. I would have the time to set up a shot and not ever have to worry about getting in the way of somebody. I shot a lot in order to tell what I thought would be the zoos’ story, or to try and capture the feeling I was getting from the zoo. It took me a day and a half to get to know my way around the zoo. The grounds were huge and the map didn’t always make the most sense to me. I would mark things off as I photographed them or figure out when the light was best and go back. Often getting lost, I would stumble upon short cuts through the middle of the zoo that were not marked on the map. Those little short cuts led to old abandoned buildings and old exhibits of some sort that were no longer in use, and occasionally had no bars. It was great. I explored every inch of the zoo trying unmarked doors and open gates. After a couple of days there, the workers would recognize me and just smile as I braved to go into the gates that were obviously not for the patrons. After about the fourth day I felt more confident being around the workers and would just photograph anything since no one told me not to. The most confused of the zoo workers was the ticket lady. Her face looked more confused everyday I would come back. It made me laugh.

Towards the end of my time at the zoo I had to start rationing the film I brought. It’s was easy to keep shooting, but I didn’t want to run out, which forced me to think about every shot even more. In the end I think that was a good thing for the project. It made me think about the photos I had already taken and how they would work with the one I was setting up for or re-shooting. The Shanghai Zoo project feels like the most complete project I have done, but it is also the newest. In the end every shot didn’t relate to one another, but that was OK for me. Its good practice when the hardest part of the project is upon me… the editing. It helps me to think about the project and how it becomes a body of work. Often the way I was thinking at the time of the picture is not what comes out in the end. It’s pretty amazing. Editing is still by far the hardest part of photography for me. Well, that and writing about it. Even now over a year later the Shanghai Zoo edit changes a little every time I go back to the pictures, hopefully for the best.

About Muge photography, by Louise Clements

Louise Clements — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:13:38 +0000

Photos by Muge (木格), text by Louise Clements. ¹

their melancholy
is also my melancholy.
my melancholy is also theirs

I first became aware of Muge on Flickr.com when I was searching for artists to visit in 2008 during a research trip to Chongqing China, with colleagues from QUAD. I wanted to find someone that would be under the radar of the main institutions that were facilitating our visit. I wanted to meet someone real, on the ground and working on their own terms, outside of the commercial art and international biennale circuits – someone of the underground so to speak. ‘To be a great artist you must not be afraid to be hungry’ Muge from Chengdu and his friends from all over Schezuan province are just this, they have committed to great hardship, taken the risk to believe in themselves enough to become photographers in a place where opportunities are scarce, competition is high, materialism is fashionable and individualism is a treacherous endeavor.

Fortunately as a consequence of our encounter on flickr and then in Chongqing I was able to invite Muge to the UK to participate in Format International Photography Festival – Photocinema, in the title exhibition with his work Silence and in person with fellow photographer from Chongqing, Zhang Xiao. I was fascinated how they would view the UK, during their first trip outside of China, and indeed they applied a similar principle and unique viewpoint to representing the places they encountered. For Muge his photographs often toy with the cinematic/filmic in ways that allow him to expand into imagined sequence the tension of which the before and the after offer a temporal dimension in the mind of the viewer, a place where the narrative of the onlooker is vitalized. Parallels can be drawn between Muge in relation to the influence of film Director Jia Zhangke and photographers Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Martin Parr and August Sander. Most clearly perhaps in the kinds of subjects he focuses on that mirrors Sanders series People of the 20th Century. In this Sander aims to show a cross-section of society during the Weimar Republic. The series is divided into seven sections: Farmers, Skilled Tradesman, Women, Classes and Professions, Artists, City, and The Last People (homeless people, veterans and so on). By 1945 Sander’s archive included over 40,000 images. Muge is part way there already.

Muge’s recent works titled Silence and Go Home are perhaps the most autobiographical series. Muge has a unique point of view, different from the hundreds of western photographers who have tried to represent the region. He drifts through the city and country side mapping people and place, he can relate directly to the dislocated people of the Three Gorges region along the banks of the Yangtze River, because it is where he has lived all his life. Chinese people respond differently to a westerner with a camera, Muge can pass unnoticed or at least his presence does not cause a local reaction. He is able to look people in the eye on literally level terms, in so many ways he is part of the people he represents.

The notion of home throughout Muge’s work takes the idea of home as something that is the starting point of life it is a refuge, it is the last place that would shut you out, it is the romanticized sanctuary of belonging.

…the desire to return home becomes much stronger, just like a dream enchanting the mind every night. Only by returning home can that lukewarm sense of loss be eliminated.²

Thousands of people from China each year migrate to the cities and beyond to find work but as the Chinese saying goes – even leaves return to their roots. What can you do if your home has been submerged and your family, culture and community fractured and relocated? Where do you go, when even the geography has changed? Two extremes seem to emerge in Muge’s images of deep sorrow and that of numbness.

Some may say that Muge’s images are filled with Saudade a German word meaning filled with longing, and in my understanding of it – for home and nostalgia for lost dreams. But I also believe them to be beyond longing reflecting the rapid changes in China as felt by the people. Representing the individuals swept along and those left behind literally by the tidal wave of progress from the Three Gorges Dam project and economic developments – the utopian future in spite of the present. Photography becomes a tool to turn memories into something tangible an attempt of remembrance, to keep one’s memories intact. The changes for many have been too hard to bear, longing turns to numbness where there is regret in that we no longer know what we long for, and if we ever did. In the words of Pink Floyd:

There is no pain, you are receding.
A distant ships smoke on the horizon.
You are only coming through in waves.
Your lips move but I can’t hear what you’re saying.
When I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse,
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone.
I cannot put my finger on it now.
The child is grown, the dream is gone.
I have become comfortably numb.³

He has an obsession with people and the vernacular, people and place. His are contradictory emotive pictures full of emotion and latent motive and they are truly wonder-full in their numbness. They are meaning rich and in looking at them, spending time with them you cannot help to feel that part of your memory has been etched with the people and places as seen through Muge’s eyes, that then become your own. Despite acknowledging the contradiction between the recorded image and the inaccuracies of human visual memory our dislocated biographies cannot help but become connected for a moment.

Within his photography lies a desire crystallised by the word ‘regarder’ a dynamic coupling of the act of looking (regard) holding in your mind and eyes; and preserving (garder) documenting and evidencing. This perfectly summarises the intent in the photographs. Muge’s images both preserve and reflect, poetic moments in time and in memory of the world that he inhabits. He wants the memories of his images to endure. Numbed and unconscious of the camera, recording pain and indifference for posterity the memory of those moments will have to cling to the pictures that remain. They are also an honest reflection of his unique view of his homeland, he has a special eye for the sublime and melancholic of the lost – perhaps a reflection of his own soul.. however to meet him you will understand that he, luckily, naturally prioritises joyfulness over sorrow. Muge has refined his technique to represent a sense of place that is greater and more compacted than the geography of everyday life, it is a transformative world beyond the facade. Dostoyevsky was known to have said that ‘Beauty will save the world’. To this end these images come from a desire not only to elucidate the incredible but also from an ambition to examine and find the transcendent, rather than represent the beauty of mere surfaces.

Louise Clements is a curator, writer, performer and artist. Currently Senior Curator of QUAD also Co-founder and Curator of Format International Photography Festival Biennale, Derby UK.
See Confucius institute online.
Comfortably numb by Pink Floyd, 1979.

China – Camera Obscura

Why do Chinese love photography

This is Shanghai, by Rob Whitworth

China’s landscape through the lens of three Western photographers

﻿Interview with Yuan Yanwu

Interview with Yan Ming

﻿Interview with Li Wei

﻿Interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang

Interview with Xiaomei Chen

Interview with Sheila Zhao

﻿Interview with Rian Dundon

Between In and Out, by Xiaomei Chen (陈小枚)

They, by Zhang Xiao

Shifting Focus: China Roads, by Sheila Zhao

Shanghai Zoo, by Cody Cloud

About Muge photography, by Louise Clements

Interview with Yuan Yanwu

Interview with Li Wei

Interview with Li Jie and Zhang Jungang

Interview with Rian Dundon