The gap between China's photography and foreign photography.

Cultural differences between Chinese and western photography

Photography was born in France in 1930s, and was introduced to China from the west a few years later. For a century and a half, photography has grown in the earthen basket of China culture, and many photographers pursue national forms and oriental charm in their photography creation. The nutrition of China's traditional aesthetics makes China's photography deeply rooted. We should not only see that the ontological feature of photography is documentary, but also see its instantaneous persistence and documentary compulsion. These characteristics are manifested in the same way that China photographers and western photographers create art, but we should also see that there are differences in aesthetic consciousness and artistic theory between China and the West due to the differences in natural geographical environment, historical development process and cultural tradition. China's traditional philosophy and aesthetic theory have had an important influence on China photographers' aesthetic consciousness, artistic expression and aesthetic ideal, thus showing distinctive national characteristics.

1. Because of the different understanding of the relationship between man and nature between China and the West, the photographic subjects that occupy the main position in artistic photography are also different: human body and scenery?

Today, China's artistic photography has a wide range of subjects. It can be said that almost all subjects of western art photography are shot by China photographers. However, when we examine the main themes in the history of Chinese and western photography, we will be surprised to find that the gap between them is so great. The main content of western photography is shooting people (portraits, human bodies, documentaries). In particular, human photography has its artistic tradition. In the history of western photography, shortly after the invention of photography, Daguerre's silver photos had a human theme. Oscar rejlander, the author of The Father of Eating Photography and Two Ways of Life, is a pioneer in the field of human photography. Although the style and genre of human photography have changed again and again, it has always flourished. [ 1]

In China, human photography has long been unable to become the subject matter of photographers' creation. In 1930s, there were Luo Bainian's "Taking the urn" and Lang Jingshan's "Meditation". Since then, the wave of human photography has risen and fallen. The society's understanding of human body photography is of course related to China's unique cultural background and national tradition, and even more related to the ethos of the times. On the other hand, in China, landscape photography has become the largest and most prominent photography mainstream in artistic photography activities. In contrast, landscape photography has never occupied an important position in the history of western photography. Bao Kun thinks: "ansel adams is a recognized master of landscape photography. In his photography practice, the most important thing for him may be to study the' area exposure method' and how to use this method to better express his communication with nature. Obsessed with and worshiping the technical characteristics of photography, his art is obviously different from what we now call landscape photography. "[2]

The reasons for the great contrast of themes can be explored from social, political, historical and other aspects. But the most fundamental reason is that there are huge differences between China and the West in the relationship between man and nature.

In the west, the relationship between man and nature is antagonistic. Westerners believe that man is not only a part of nature, but also a precise product of natural development to a certain stage. As the cutting edge of nature, man is opposite to the general nature. They emphasize the dominant position of human beings in objective nature. They have developed a national character of conquering nature since ancient times. Reflected in the aesthetic consciousness, it is often that the aesthetic subject and the aesthetic subject are in a split and antagonistic relationship and enter the realm of "harmony between man and nature". Therefore, the main object of western art is not nature, but people. Western artists try their best to show the perfect unity of human body and spirit. In the western classical period and Renaissance, human 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. China people are often an inseparable part of nature in the relationship between man and nature, and man and nature are integrated. Reflected in the aesthetic consciousness, the aesthetic subject puts into the aesthetic object, and the object melts into the subject, reaching the realm of "harmony between man and nature" where things and I forget each other. Therefore, the main object of China ancient art is landscape. China's landscape poems and paintings matured earlier, appearing at the turn of the 4th and 5th centuries. In the west, nature, as an independent aesthetic object, appeared in Dutch paintings in the17th century and was determined in the romantic poems of Britain and Germany in the18th century. China's cultural tradition, which embodies the beauty of harmony between man and nature, has far-reaching influence so far, inspiring photographers in China to worship famous mountains and rivers with iron shoes and vividly depict the mountains and rivers of the motherland. Ethan, a landscape photographer living in the United States, also deeply felt the influence of traditional culture on him, which has been affecting his feelings for nature. He said, "In the past 30 years, every time I took my camera to the mountains, lakes and seas, my life seemed to become more fulfilling. Slowly, I began to realize that my feelings for nature are inevitably related to the influence of cultural traditions since I was a child. It is precisely because of China's cultural tradition that' man's law is based on land, land is based on nature, and nature is based on nature' that Sima Qian felt that only by' studying the time between man and nature' can he' understand the changes of ancient and modern times and become a unified statement'. Indeed, the inspiration from nature made me fully realize that nature is a teacher and a friend, and the distance between man and nature seems to be getting shorter and shorter because of persistent exploration and pursuit. " [3]

Lin Yutang has a passage about the differences between Chinese and western artistic objects, which is very interesting and helps to understand the differences in photographic subjects. Here are ten articles: "The impulse of China's art originates from mountains and rivers; The impulse of western art originates from women. " "Westerners know the beauty of human body curves, but they don't know the beauty of natural curves; China people know the beauty of natural curves, but they don't know the beauty of human curves.

"Westerners think of victory, our cause, peace and justice, and the shadow of a naked woman. Why must the gods of victory, freedom, peace and justice be women, not men? The people of China will never understand; People in China like to draw a strange stone and hang it on the wall, enjoying the natural curve of mountains and rivers it represents all day. Westerners will never understand. Westerners ask China people why they only paint mountains, just like your wife's face? " "China art, technology is subjective (such as literati painting, drunk pen), but the goal is deification, so that people can control the sky" [4] Western art, technology is different (such as photography), but the goal is self-control, so that people can control the sky. "Lin Yutang said that the fundamental difference between the two lies in the relationship between man and nature, that is," man dominates the sky "or" man dominates the sky ",and also mentioned the difference between Chinese and western artistic creation methods, that is, China's artistic way is subjective and the western artistic way is objective.

Second, because Chinese and western art reflect the world in different ways, artistic photography has its own emphasis: realism and freehand brushwork?

Photography is the product of science. Both Chinese and Western photographers use light, shadow and color to create three-dimensional visual images in two-dimensional space, which is the same. However, there are differences between Chinese and western photographers in the expression of artistic creation. On Huangshan Mountain, when the sun is shining, western photographers carry machines to record the texture of loose mountains and capture the changes of light and shadow, while China photographers rest in hotels. However, when the clouds were overcast and the rain was pouring down, western photographers hid in the hotel, while China photographers rushed out to shoot this wonder.

Photography language is closely integrated with philosophy and science. If westerners want to conquer nature with enterprising spirit, they must stress science. With the help of science, western plastic arts create images similar to real life. Photography itself is the product of science and technology, and the development of science and technology such as optics, chemistry and materials science plays a great role in the birth and development of photography. Composition, chromatics and aesthetics have become important parts of photographic art theory. Western photographers' compositions are all full of squares and have a single perspective. Zhou Guangying creates a three-dimensional image, emphasizing texture, shape and color. Ethan believes that Adams highlighted his worship of industrial precision with his big camera. Moreover, that kind of precision has gone beyond what we can see with the naked eye, but it seems stiff. [5]

China's plastic arts are more about philosophy. Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, in and out of the world, affect the artist's life course and artistic course, and also affect the artist's artistic creation method-realism or freehand brushwork. Confucian scholars pursue WTO entry and emphasize realism; However, bumpy people believe in Buddhism and are beyond the world. When creating art, they do not seek the shape of God, but pursue abstract meaning. "Literati painting" is characterized by freehand brushwork. China painters broke through the shackles of fixed light source's focus perspective and light and dark modeling, and created scattered perspective and line drawing methods to create images. Make bold choices when painting, and keep the image characteristics that can best express my spiritual temperament. There is a big blank in the picture, which forms a wonderful empty inspiration and gives the audience room for imagination and re-creation. Literati painted pine, bamboo, plum and orchid, which showed the noble character of the painter. These traditions have a great influence on photographers in China. Liu Bannong called artistic photography "freehand brushwork photography". Lang Jingshan pioneered the method of collective photography based on freehand brushwork, and photographed such works as Spring Tree, Qingjiang River in Xiaoji and Children's Travel, which were widely appreciated by foreign photographers. Hu Chi's Return to Shicheng, Snow Disaster on One Shoulder, Wu Zhong's Return to Pasture, etc. Today, the works of Ao, Jian Qingfu, Yuan and others are quite picturesque in China. Photographer Yu likes to use a large area of black to set off a little light in his works. He said: "In the painting theory of Chinese painting, white space is the opposite of photography, and black space is used to contrast this white space. Pay attention to saving pens in painting, that is, leave blank; In photography, saving light means leaving black. " [6] Yuan's Huangshan photography often shows ethereal charm. He used the clouds of Huangshan Mountain to "leave blank". American friend helen snow praised his Yuping Peak as "amazing". She wrote: "Seeing the looming scenery in this fog is like being in the mystery of ancient Taoism." It was with the most realistic lenses and films that Yuan created a freehand brushwork to express his mind.