Cao Zhen

    caozhen0806@126.com

    GREAT American photographer Ansel Adams once said: “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” He was not only referring to the technical side of photography, but also the elements and expression in a photo. Although most people would agree with this saying today, 20 years ago photography in China was not considered art by the majority of viewers — it was seen as a pure documentary technique. So when a small number of Chinese photographers began to push the movement of “New Photography” in the 1990s, it was not only revolutionary, but also risky.

    Now some of the controversial photos of that movement are on display at the “From New Photography to Rookie Award” exhibition in He Xiangning Art Museum. Beijing-based Three Shadows Photography Art Center is providing the 100-plus exhibits taken by 19 Chinese artists during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as some recent works.

    A concurrent exhibition of 66 works by U.S. photographers Harry Callahan, Robert Mapplethorpe, Jeff Koons, Sally Mann, Cindy Sherman and Damien Hirst and German photographer Andreas Gursky are also on display. Charles Jin, Chinese-American photographer and collector, provided the exhibits. Titled “From Callahan to Jeff Koons,” the exhibition echoes the “New Photography” exhibition, which allows viewers to sift through cultural contexts and histories of the East and the West.

    The “New Photography” exhibition affords viewers a rare and intriguing glimpse into the “New Photography” movement in China in the 1990s. Photographers in the movement differed from their earlier counterparts in that “they focused their attention on themselves, using the society as a photographic carrier to reflect the dilemmas, anxieties, pressures and doubts of that generation,” said Rong Rong, founder and director of Three Shadows Photography Art Center. He is also one of the curators of the exhibition.

    The most controversial photos on display are Liu Zheng’s “Three Realms” series. The photos taken in 1997 depict scenes from classical Chinese novels, such as “A Dream of Red Mansions” or “Journey to the West.” Characters in the photos wear Beijing opera costumes but the females are nude, posing intimately with the males.

    At the exhibition, Liu recalled that in the 1990s, Western nude photography was just entering China and he wanted to combine it into traditional Chinese culture. The players in the photos were Liu’s friends and since the photos were not published, no one received payment. The photos later were circulated online, but were severely criticized by Internet users as pornography and desecrating Beijing opera. The photos were even posted on some porn websites.

    Liu, a former photo journalist for The Workers’ Daily newspaper, explained that the photos attempt to illustrate the three mindsets of Chinese people: “paradise,” “world” and “hell” and he wanted to use classics to create absurdity.

    During the 1990s, artists in the “New Photography” movement published their photos in an unlicensed magazine called “New Photography.” Created by Liu and Rong in 1996, the underground magazine was made from photocopiers and for each edition, they only printed 20-30 copies.

    “From 1996 to 1998 we produced four editions. It was entirely self-initiated. For the majority of the artists featured in the magazine, it was their first time to have their works published. It was this simple little magazine that allowed us to establish an independent attitude and unique position on photography,” said Rong.

    Rong also has his representative work — “East Village Series” shown at the exhibition. He used his camera to capture the lives of migrant workers and young artists in East Village, a remote and shabby place outside the North Third Ring Road (near today’s Chaoyang Park) in Beijing. With cheap rent, East Village was a gathering place for poor migrants during the 1990s. From the emergence to the demolition of the village, Rong witnessed the early development of Chinese contemporary art.

    “The majority of artists in the 1990s were working on canvas, installation or video and only a few engaged in photography. At that time, even in the capital city of China, there was not a single gallery or national art institution displaying contemporary art. So, we only gathered in our cheap flats and courtyards, called on friends, and held underground exhibitions,” said Rong.

    Liu said Chinese artists in the “New Photography” movement were influenced by Western photographers such as Callahan, Sherman and Mapplethorpe. The issues that these photographers address — sexuality and identity — are common themes that thread throughout modern Western art.

    The parallel “Callahan” exhibition includes arresting photos from the iconic artists that have made a significant impact on the world of art photography. Those looking for controversial works from Mapplethorpe will be disappointed because some of his explicit homosexual photos are not on display in the Shenzhen exhibit. However, viewers can admire his representative black-and-white flower photos. Mapplethorpe’s flowers are as carefully positioned as his human subjects. “His photos are stark — usually only one or two flowers, and often in shadow — forcing viewers to think of his powerful human nude photos,” said Liu.

    There is a significant number of Sally Mann’s works at the exhibition. Mann turned her camera on her children, creating photos that, to critics, were child pornography, but to supporters, cozy and gorgeous renditions of children’s emotion in the most natural state of all.

    “Influenced by the international artists, Chinese photography made a revolutionary change in the 1990s. What was regarded as simple is now regarded as stunning. In the days of mobile phones, we are still making history and photography is becoming multimedia art,” said Liu.

Dates: Until April 20

Hours: 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Closed Mondays

Venue: He Xiangning Art Museum, Overseas Chinese Town, Shennan Boulevard, Nanshan District (南山区华侨城何香凝美术馆)

Metro: Luobao Line, OCT Station (华侨城站), Exit C

1. “Fall in the Forbidden City: East Corridor, Taihe Hall” by Hong Lei in 1997.

2. “Untitled” by Jeff Koons in 2009.

3. “Three Youths in Simao,” taken by Hong Kong photographer Liu Heung-shing in 1980 in Simao, Yunnan Province, to show modern fashions begin to influence China’s youth.

4. “Last Light” by Sally Mann in 1990.

5. “Rose, N.Y.C.” by Robert Mapplethorpe in 1977.

Photos by courtesy of He Xiangning Art Museum