Fossilizing memories and history

Pulitzer-winning American Chinese Liu Heung Shing talks about the state of photojournalism and what makes a good photo

Many people have argued that the true beauty of photography has been lost in this digital age when more and more people use smartphones to take and share photos on social media. While Liu Heung Shing concedes that photojournalism may be a dying profession, he is adamant that the craft is nowhere near its demise.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, who is the founder of the Shanghai Center of Photography, believes that craft of capturing images will exist so long as humans do, simply because it is in our nature to tell stories. He sees photography as a most effective method of storytelling as it is not bound by any barriers such as language.

Photographer Liu Heung Shing sees photography as a most effective method of storytelling. Gao Erqiang / China Daily

From left: A young couple in Shanghai People's Park in 1978 when dating in public was still not widely acceptable in society; people studying hard before the college enrollment exam at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1981; a young man skating in front of a statue of Chairman Mao Zedong. Photos by Liu Heung Shiing / For China Daily

Despite the millions of images that are taken and uploaded to social media sites every day, Liu says that good pictures are still rare, for it takes great skill to create one that can tell stories, evoke an emotional response from the audience, and become part of the "collective memory" of a nation.

Liu says that people now understand the challenges and difficulties involved in photography, as getting hands-on with the craft itself has made them realize that "photography is the easiest thing, and at the same time the most difficult thing to do". He views the immense popularity of photography as a good thing, saying that the phenomenon has got people more interested in the craft, resulting in record attendance figures at international photography exhibitions and art fairs.

Photo Shanghai, an international art fair organized by the World Photography Organization, is one such event that has greatly benefitted from the photography craze. The fair, which ran from Sept 11 to 13 at the Shanghai Exhibition Center, attracted 26,000 visitors.

Fair director Alexander Montague-Sparey said the crowd numbers is indicative of the considerable increase in awareness and passion for photography in China, which has subsequently translated into strong sales of iconic vintage and contemporary masterpieces.

Insightful portrayal

Liu, an American Chinese photographer who has lived and worked in China for several decades, is widely recognized for his insightful portrayals of the everyday lives of ordinary Chinese people over the past 30 years. While there are often debates about the merits of different genres of photography, Liu believes that this is a wrong approach to understanding the craft. He suggests that there is a universal standard to good photography, saying that a good image transcends categorization, style and method.

"Often when breaking news takes place, you will find that newspapers all over the world use very similar front page pictures," he says, before adding that despite the numerous number of photographers at the scene, only a select few get their works published by agencies around the world.

Born in 1951, Liu spent most of his childhood in Fujian province before moving to Hong Kong. He studied at the City University of New York where he read extensively about China. In 1978, he started to work as the founder and reporter for Time magazine's Beijing office. He was particularly intrigued with the prevalence of political intervention in everyday life and decided to document it. For example, in his photos of a peasant in the Emei Mountains of Sichuan province, one can find political slogans printed on the wall, and a large portrait of Chairman Mao hanging in the center of the house.

One of his most famous works showed workers taking Chairman Mao's portrait off the facade of the National Museum of Chinese History on the east side of Tiananmen Square. That particular photo is now regarded as one of the most important images signifying the end of an era in China.

"At the time when I took that picture, nobody realized what it meant, not even the workers themselves. They thought it was just a routine cleaning process," Liu says.

Local lifestyle

It has now become a luxury for a publication or news agency to send a photographer to a foreign country, Liu said. In the past, a photojournalist would arrive in a strange country and experience the local lifestyle without much pressure. He or she would also be granted a few years to immerse himself into the local life and culture, filing reports from the field. Some great photographers, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), created their most celebrated works this way.

"I might be the last generation of them," Liu said. "Photojournalism has changed so much."

He adds that news publications and agencies nowadays would instead hire local photographers because it is more economical and efficient. He says that this has resulted in the loss of a "fresh pair of eyes" and the unique observation of an experienced journalist or artist from another land.

Having been in China for so long, Liu believes there is an urgent need to improve lateral thinking in China's education system before the standard of photography in the country can improve. He hopes that the Shanghai Center of Photography (SCoP) will be able to foster a systematic and effective narrative to rectify this.

"When editors pick the images for the front page, their judgment is largely the same," Liu says.

"I believe this judgment is lacking in China today...It is education, and the training in lateral thinking, that will help a photographer capture the best picture. Education in China has for a very long time been focused on the vertical depth of knowledge. Lateral training is lacking," Liu adds.

Museum mile

ScoP is located in the West Bund art district. Together with the neighboring Long Museum, Yuz Museum and West Bund Art Center, the cluster makes up Shanghai's equivalent of a Museum Mile.

The Xuhui district in Shanghai invited Liu to move from Beijing to Shanghai in 2014, suggesting he use the 500-sq-m building, which was designed by award-winning architects Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee, as his workshop. As a photographer who works mostly outdoors, Liu decided to turn the space into a museum.

"There are already a few photography galleries in Shanghai, but as a museum, which is a nonprofit facility, we can present exhibitions that no one else is capable of," he says.

The museum celebrated its opening in May, and the opening exhibition featured Jin Hongwei's private collection of Photography from the 20th Century, which included many of its most celebrated images by masters such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Man Ray and Guy Bourdin.

Currently ongoing at ScoP is a major exhibition titled Grain to Pixel and it features the development of photography in China through the past century. From works by some of China's greatest photo artists of the 20th century, to those by leading figures in China's contemporary art scene and fashion photography, the exhibition showcases the evolution as well as the possibilities of photography.

In a glass cabinet at the exhibition hall, black-and-white pictures of Chinese landscapes taken by western explorers and travelers in the early 20th century are on display. A walk through exhibition hall takes visitors from vintage photographs to those taken in the digital age when artists try all possible media platforms and methods available, including photoshop, artificial settings and theater effects.

"They are from different contexts and schools of thought, and all these photographers have created outstanding pieces, without being restrained by any framework of ideas," Liu says of the exhibition.

zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/21/2015 page16)