PDF《CHINA:》

CHINA: grain to pixel Large Print Monash Gallery of Art

5 JuneC28 August

2016 A story of photography in China The term '

pixel'

is familiar to all.

Less familiar is '

grain'

, a term used in the pre-digital age to describe the texture of a photograph. Variations of grain contribute to a timeless aesthetic beauty that is hard to emulate digitally, even with a zillion pixels. In swapping grains for pixels, photography has lost none of its power to capture compelling moments in daily life, human physiognomy, still life, nature or the imagination. The transition from grain to pixel coincided with a period in which photography in China emerged as a fully rounded form of expression. As such, the title of this exhibition describes an arc of time stretching back almost one hundred years, a period in which photography entered China as a phenomenon and was transformed. It is a century through which the evolution of photography mirrored profound social and economic transformation;

from an initial encounter with photography C that of China as the subject of the foreign lens C to the moment when Chinese photographers began turning the lens upon themselves, and photography found a ?xed place in daily life. Photography has become intrinsic to the way in which the world is seen and understood. The presence of the photograph in daily life is entwined with the complementary visual ?elds of advertising, marketing, propaganda and art. Drawing on a wide-range of images, China: grain to pixel presents a nuanced vision of Chinese society and creativity against the background of China'

s own distinctive photographic endeavour. 颗粒到像素――摄影在中国 如今,每个人都熟悉 像素 这一术语.相比之下,人们 不大了解 颗粒 一词. 颗粒 在数码时代来临之前被 用来描述一张照片的质地.颗粒丰富而微妙的变化,为照 片赋予了一种永恒的审美美感,这是难以用数字手段模仿 的,即便有亿万像素.然而,在像素替换颗粒的过程中, 摄影从未遗失它捕捉扣人心弦的瞬间的力量,无论是在日 常生活中,还是在肖像、静物、自然或想象中. 从 颗粒 过渡到 像素 的时期,也正是摄影在中国 逐渐显现成为一种完全丰满的表达形式的时期. 颗粒 到 像素 在时间的弧度上跨越了一百年之久,标志了摄影 从刚传入中国直至如今的进化历程.一个世纪里,中国摄 影的演变也是社会、经济巨大变革的真实写照;

从最初与 摄影的邂逅――那时中国是外国人镜头中的主题――到中 国摄影师开始将镜头对准自己,摄影逐渐在人们的日常生 活中找到了位置. 今天摄影已成为观看和理解这个世界的方式之一.在日常 生活中,摄影照片又与广告、营销、宣传和艺术这些领域 密不可分.《中国:颗粒到像素》通过丰富的图像展现了 在中国独特的摄影发展背景下,关于其社会和创造力的精 妙视界. Early photography in China (1890sC1920s) In Europe, photography was born in an age of progress. Early European photographers were outward-looking. Consciously or not, they used the camera to measure progress in comparative images procured by trekking far and wide into the world. For these European photographers, the camera was a means of making the world knowable and their photographs were deemed to provide factual truth. Images of China and its people were part of this early phase of photography'

s enterprise. Three early enthusiasts who came looking at China are on display here: the Italian Felice A Beato, the Scot John Thomson who authored four books on China, and the French Auguste Francois. The work of these and other foreign photographers in China in the late 19th and early 20th century served to ?x the image of China in the foreign mind, as well as the way in which China would continue to be observed by native photographers. 中国早期摄影史概述(1890C1920 年代) 在欧洲,摄影诞生于一个技术飞速革新的时代.最初的欧洲 摄影师都抱着开放的眼光.他们有意或者无意的用镜头来考 察时代的进步,行走世界各地,拍下千差万别的图像.对欧 洲摄影师而言,照相机不光是认识世界的手段,也是呈现真 实世界的工具. 在这段摄影史的初期,不得不提到中国和中国人民.这里 展示了首批通过镜头看中国的三名摄影爱好者:意大利人 Felice A Beato、授权在华出版了四本专集的苏格兰人 John Thomson、还有法国人Auguste Francois.他们三人,还有 19世纪末、20世纪初的其他外国摄影师,都为不同国家的人 提供了宝贵资料来认识中国,并留下了为中国本土摄影师所 延用的表现手法. 费利斯・比托 Felice BEATO 大高玄殿前牌楼和习礼亭 An Archway and Xili Pavilion in Front of Dagao Xuan Palace