Photography was born in France in the 1830s and was introduced to China from the West a few years later. For a century and a half, the art of photography has grown in the soil of Chinese culture. Many photographers have pursued national forms and oriental charm in their photographic art creations. The nourishment of traditional Chinese aesthetics makes Chinese photography art deeply rooted and flourishing. We should see that the ontological characteristic of photography is documentary, and the persistence of the moment and the compelling nature of documentary are reflected in the artistic creation methods of Chinese photographers and Western photographers in the same way. However, it should also be noted that due to the different natural geographical environments, different historical development processes, and different cultural traditions between China and the West, there are differences in the aesthetic consciousness and artistic theories of Chinese and Western photography. Traditional Chinese philosophy and aesthetic theory have had an important influence on the aesthetic consciousness of Chinese photographers, the expression techniques of photographic art and aesthetic ideals, thus showing distinctive national characteristics.
1. Due to the differences in the understanding of the relationship between man and nature between China and the West, the main photography themes in art photography are different: human body and landscape?
The subject matter of Chinese art photography today is very wide. It can be said that almost all subjects of Western art photography are photographed by Chinese photographers. However, when we examine the major themes in the history of Chinese and Western photographic art, we will be surprised to find that the gap between the two is so huge. The main content of Western photography is to shoot people (portraits, human bodies, documentary). In particular, nude photography has its own artistic tradition. In the history of Western photography, not long after the invention of photography, Daguerreotypes included human subjects. Oscar Leland, known as the "Father of Food Photography" and the author of "Two Roads in Life", can be called a pioneer in the field of nude photography. Although the style and genre of nude photography art have changed and evolved, its trend remains the same.
In China, human body photography has not been the subject of photographers' creations for a long time. In the 1930s, there were "Ji Weng" shot by Luo Bonian and "Meditation" by Lang Jingshan. Since then, the trend of nude photography has been rising and falling. The degree of social understanding of nude photography is not only related to China’s unique cultural background and national traditions, but also to the trend of the times. On the other hand, in China, landscape photography plays an important role in artistic photography activities. , has become the most numerous and prominent photography mainstream. In contrast, in the history of Western photography, landscape photography has never occupied an important position. Bao Kun believes that even An is recognized as a master of landscape photography. Serge Adams, in his photography practice, is probably most important to his research on the 'area exposure method', and how to use this method to better express his obsession with the technical characteristics of photography. Worship makes his art clearly different from the landscape photography we are talking about now."
We can explore the reasons for the huge contrast in subject matter from social, political, historical and other aspects. But the most fundamental reason is that there are major differences between China and the West on the relationship between man and nature.
In the West, the relationship between man and nature is antagonistic. Westerners believe that humans are not only part of nature, but also the cutting-edge product of nature's development to a certain stage. Man as the cusp of nature is in opposition to nature in general. They emphasize man's dominance over objective nature. They have developed a national character of conquering nature since ancient times. Reflected in the aesthetic consciousness, the aesthetic subject and the aesthetic body are often in a split and antagonistic relationship, entering a state of "the victory between nature and man". Therefore, the main object of expression in Western art is not nature, but human beings. Western artists strive to express the perfect unity of human body and spirit. In the Western classical period and the Renaissance, body art occupied an important position. This tradition must be reflected in artistic photography.
In China, the relationship between man and nature is harmonious and unified. In terms of the relationship between man and nature, the Chinese tend to believe that man is an inseparable part of nature, and man and nature become one. Reflected in the aesthetic consciousness, the aesthetic subject invests in the aesthetic object, and the object merges with the subject, achieving the state of "unity of nature and man" in which both things and myself are forgotten. Therefore, the main expression object of ancient Chinese art is landscape. Chinese landscape poetry and painting matured early and appeared during the Jin and Song Dynasties, that is, at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries AD. In the West, nature is regarded as an independent aesthetic object. It appeared in Dutch painting in the 17th century and was only established in the romantic poetry of Britain and Germany in the 18th century. The Chinese cultural tradition, which reflects the beauty of harmony between man and nature, has a huge influence to this day, inspiring Chinese photographers to go out of their iron shoes to visit famous mountains and rivers, and to portray the mountains and rivers of the motherland vividly. Li Yuan, a landscape photography artist living in the United States, also deeply feels that traditional culture has influenced him, which has always affected his feelings towards nature. He said: "In the past thirty years, every time I walked to the mountains, forests, lakes and seas with my camera, my life seemed to become more fulfilling. Slowly, I began to realize that my feelings for nature were related to myself. There is an inevitable connection between being influenced by cultural traditions since childhood. It is precisely because Chinese cultural traditions emphasize that 'man follows the earth, the earth follows the heaven, the heaven follows the Tao, and the Tao follows nature', which made Sima Qian feel that only by 'studying the relationship between heaven and man' can he do it. 'Through the changes of past and present, we can become a family.' Indeed, the inspiration given by nature has made me fully realize that nature is a teacher and a friend. If I persist in exploring and pursuing, the distance between heaven and man seems to be getting shorter and shorter. .
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Lin Yutang has a passage that discusses the differences between Chinese and Western artistic expression objects. It is very interesting and will be helpful for understanding the differences in photography themes. I will record ten of them here: "The impulse of Chinese art originates from landscapes; The impulse of Western art originated from women. "Westerners know the beauty of the human body's curves, but they don't know the beauty of the natural curves; Chinese people know the beauty of the natural curves, but they don't know the beauty of the human body's curves."
“When Westerners think of ‘victory’, ‘freedom’, ‘peace’, and ‘justice’, they think of the shadow of a naked woman. Why must the gods of victory, freedom, peace, and justice be women, not Could it be a man? Chinese people will never understand; Chinese people like to paint a strange stone and hang it on the wall, admiring the natural curves of mountains and rivers it represents. Westerners will also never understand. Do you paint mountains? Why do you specialize in painting wrinkles, just like painting your wife’s face? “Chinese art, techniques are subjective (such as literati painting, drunken brush painting), but the goal is to deify, to achieve the goal of man’s perfection.” In Western art, techniques are based on different perspectives. (Like a photographic portrait), but the goal is oneself, and the goal is to control nature with man. ""Lin Yutang talked about the fundamental difference between the two lies in the relationship between man and nature, whether "man is used to gain heaven" or "man is used to control nature". He also mentioned the difference in the way of artistic creation between China and the West, that is, the Chinese art method. is subjective, while Western art methods are objective.
2. Due to the different ways in which art reflects the world between China and the West, the expression techniques of artistic photography have different emphases: realistic or freehand?
Photography is a product of science. Chinese and Western photographers use light, shadow and color to create three-dimensional visual images in two-dimensional space. These are all the same. However, there are indeed differences in the expression techniques of artistic creation between Chinese and Western photographers. On Mount Huangshan, on a sunny day, Western photographers put on their machines to record the texture of the pines and capture the changes in light and shadow, while the Chinese photographers rested in the hotel. However, when dark clouds gather and heavy rain falls, Western photographers hide in hotels, while Chinese photographers rush out to take pictures of this wonderland of rising clouds and mist.
The language of photography is closely integrated with philosophy and scientific theory. If Westerners want to achieve the goal of conquering nature with an enterprising spirit, they must be scientific. Western plastic arts use science to create images that resemble real life. Photography itself is a product of science and technology, and the development of science and technology such as optics, chemistry, and materials science played a large role in the birth and development of photography. Composition, color and aesthetics have become important parts of photography art theory. Western photographers compose pictures that fill the frame, use single-point perspective, and use peripheral light and shadow to create a three-dimensional image, focusing on texture, shape, and color. Li Yuan believes that Adams used the large camera to highlight his worship of industrial precision. Moreover, such precision has surpassed what we can see with our eyes, but it seems stiff.
Chinese plastic arts are more about philosophy. The two ideas of worldliness and transcendence from Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism affect the artist's life and artistic process, as well as the artist's method of artistic creation - realistic or freehand. Those who respect Confucianism pursue worldliness and emphasize realism; while those who believe in Buddhism and Laoism are detached from the world. When creating art, they do not seek resemblance in form but resemblance in spirit, and pursue abstract meaning. The characteristic of "literati painting" is freehand brushwork. Chinese painters broke through the constraints of focused perspective and light and dark modeling methods of fixed light sources, and created scattered perspective and line drawing methods to create images. When painting, I make bold choices and retain the image features that best express my spiritual temperament. There is a large blank space on the screen, forming a wonderful ethereal feeling, giving the viewer room to imagine and recreate. Literati painted pine, bamboo, plum and orchid, which showed the noble character of the painter. These traditions have a great influence on Chinese photographers. Liu Bannong calls artistic photography "freehand photography". Lang Jingshan created the collection photography method with freehand techniques and produced works such as "Spring Trees and Qingfeng", "Dawn on the Qingjiang River", and "People's Travel", which have won widespread praise from famous foreign photographers. Hu Boxiang's "Late Return from Stone City", Lao Zhongku's "A Shoulder of Snow in the Wind", Wu Zhongxing's "Return to the Shepherd", etc., as well as contemporary works by Ao Enhong, Chen Fuli, Jian Qingfu and Yuan Lianmin all have a Chinese painting feel. Photographer Yu Yuntian likes to use large areas of black to set off a little bit of light in his works. He said: "The principle of Chinese painting is to leave white space. Photography is just the opposite of this. Black is used to contrast the white. In painting, it is important to save brushwork, which is to leave white. In photography, to save light, it is to leave black. "Yuan Lianmin's Huangshan photography often displays an ethereal charm. He used the clouds and mists of Huangshan Mountain to "leave blank space". American friend Helen Snow praised his "Yunyong Yuping Peak" as "amazing". She wrote: "Seeing this kind of scenery vaguely flashing in the clouds and mist, it feels like being in the mystery of ancient Taoism." Yuan Lianmin used the most realistic camera and film to create freehand works that express his soul. .
3. Due to the differences in artistic traditions and aesthetic pursuits between China and the West, art photography has different forms of reflecting its aesthetic ideals; typicality and artistic conception.
Western representation, where art is more developed, uses humans to express themes, emphasizes representation, truth-seeking, and absorbs scientific achievements to create an artistic image that resembles reality. The most classic of its classical art theories is the "imitation theory." Imitation is the imitation and imitation of objective things. Aristotle talked about the "theory of imitation" in "Poetics": "These things are described as they should be." The imitation theory later developed into the typical theory. Balzac believed: "A typical is a sample of a class." When discussing typification, Belinsky put forward the proposition of "familiar strangers".
Engels's important discussion on the relationship between typical images and typical environments made contributions to the theory of typicality. Western photographers used the tradition of Western classical art theory to shoot some typical images, such as Cash's "Angry Churchill", Halsman's "Atomic Dali" and so on.
The expressive arts in ancient China were relatively developed, with poems expressing aspirations and words relating to emotions, and paintings advocating "the meaning beyond the oak". Poets and painters touched the scene and evoked emotions in the aesthetic observation of nature, "Mountain climbing is full of emotion." If you look at the mountains and look at the sea, the meaning will overflow into the sea." In artistic creation, we pursue the realm of blending scenes. Wang Changling of the Tang Dynasty proposed the concept of artistic conception, while Wang Guowei in modern times vigorously promoted artistic conception and became the master of artistic conception theory. He believes that artistic conception It is the integration and unity of emotion and scenery, meaning and image. Artistic conception has become the core category of Chinese traditional aesthetics. It is the embodiment of the artist's noble personality and the highest artistic conception of lyrical art works. Among photography works. Liu Bannong believes that photography can be divided into two categories: portraiture and freehand brushwork. "Freehand brushwork is to express the author's artistic conception through photography, and something must be borrowed; the original is to express the artist's artistic conception." It is dead; but after the author lends the artistic conception, it becomes alive." He also believes that the artistic conception in the work cannot be limited by photography technology and skills, it is far more important than photography technology and skills.
The theory of artistic conception is of great significance to today’s photographers. Li Yuan said: "Condolence refers to the environment in the mind. It is based on association and can also be considered as a kind of liberation of the mind from real life." It is precisely because the artistic conception is a kind of liberation and breaks away from the shackles of reality. Most of them can only be found in the wild, which makes the pursuit of artistic conception more important in landscape photography, and also makes landscape photography under the Chinese cultural tradition more profound. "When Yu Yuntian talked about a group of landscape works "Nine Songs" he created, he said: "As for the connotation of the work, it is also in line with my consistent creative ideas. What I pursue in the paintings is artistic conception. The environment is made of mountains, and the intention is lofty. . "More photographers integrate subjective emotions and objective objects in their works to create artistic conceptions full of poetry and painting. Yuan Yiping's "The East Is Red", Huang Xiang's "After the Rain in Huangshan Mountain", Chen Fuli's "Struggle", Jian Qingfu's "My Heart Has Thousands of Knots", Yuan Lianmin's "The Rising Sun", Chen Changfen's "Sun and Moon", etc. These works provide readers and viewers with beautiful thoughts and spiritual experiences.
Photography is the language of the world. In the absence of written explanations, readers of different nationalities can generally understand the content of the work through the light, shadow, shape and color of the work. Chinese photographers have recognized the ontological significance of photography and used the ontological language of photography to capture moments, record life, narrate events, and express their souls. The national tradition is deeply embedded in Chinese photography culture. Chinese photographers in the 21st century will absorb the fine qualities of the photographic culture of other nations around the world, carry forward the cultural traditions of the Chinese nation, create outstanding works worthy of the times, and forge the glory of Chinese photographic culture.