Why is a lens with a focal length of 35mm called a humanistic lens?

Tip: The following answers are entirely my personal views and do not represent any recognized and mainstream understanding or definition.

First of all, it is clear that humanistic photography is a name with China characteristics, and there is no corresponding name in the west. Searching for "humanistic photography" in Google and Baidu can hardly find any authoritative definition. (Only Soso Encyclopedia contains the word "humanistic photography", but its content is not authoritative or theoretical. )

The closest name to "humanistic photography" in English is documentary photography, which is usually translated as "documentary photography". Wiki defines documentary photography as:

Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to record major historical events. It usually appears in professional news photography or real life reports, but it may also be an amateur, artistic or academic pursuit. Photographers try to take real, objective and usually frank photos of specific topics, usually people.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_photography.

Since we can't find the definition of "humanistic photography", let's take a look at the definition of "humanities" first. Baidu Encyclopedia has a cloud:

Humanism, the abbreviation of human culture, is a personal subjective knowledge point that conforms to the law of world development and can be accepted by the public by people standing on their own or others' point of view and thinking rationally about known or unknown objective things or phenomena in the world with their own or others' methods.

Source: Humanities _ Baidu Encyclopedia

If we explain humanistic photography according to Baidu Encyclopedia's definition of human nature, then humanistic photography can be understood as two meanings:

1. The content of humanistic photography needs to be related to people and culture (activities);

2. Humanistic photography is a subjective expression of the objective world, and its content is subjective.

Well, if you don't understand what humanistic photography is here, it means that your thinking is still very clear. . .

Let's jump out of theory and look at reality.

In the circle of photography lovers in China, when it comes to humanistic photography, the most classic images are such as "Children with bright smiles under the blue sky in Tibet", "Yellow land and old farmers in western rural areas", "Silhouettes of fishermen casting nets at the bow of independent boats at sunset" and portraits or holiday photos of various ethnic minorities wearing national costumes.

There is no doubt that there are "people" and "culture (activities)" in these photos, but they are only superficial pictures of cats and tigers, without any thinking or expression. The so-called "meaning" can only be the photographer's own YY.

According to my personal one-sided and narrow-minded experience, this phenomenon is often associated with a typical image of photographers in China-men over 45 years old, usually with high-end cameras, are keen to distribute films in forums and participate in "siege" model activities in weekend parks. They may lack basic photography knowledge, usually have a low level of education and almost no aesthetic accomplishment.

Objectively speaking, it was the social environment and educational experience of that era that created the cultural level and aesthetics of this group. Even professional photographers cannot escape the influence of the times. The themes of "Oriental Red" and "Yellow Land" are really the mainstream photography culture and aesthetics of that era.

This is the understanding of humanistic photography by photographers who once occupied the mainstream. At present, there are still many fans who are willing to continue this "creation".

If photography is an art, it must be the easiest art to get started. It is very suitable for people who need to show their artistic sentiments but are too lazy to really learn an art-no wonder many politicians, businessmen and celebrities claim that they like photography. )

But in the field of professional photography, it has been closely integrated with foreign countries. At present, the media and photographers seldom use the word "humanistic photography", and more and more people begin to use names that have a clear correspondence with English, such as documentary photography, street photography and news photography. Photographers from China, especially young photographers, also began to win prizes in foreign photography competitions. The theme of "Dongfanghong" and "Yellow Land" no longer belongs to this era.

Then how to understand the current documentary photography? Let me give you two examples: the winning works of the 6th OFPiX Fund are "My Forgotten World, Please Don't Forget Me" by Qingdao photographer Li Juanhui, and "Portrait Collection Plan for Anti-Japanese War Veterans" by Hunan photographer Ma Jinhui. Both sets of works are portraits. The former focuses on patients with Alzheimer's disease, while the latter takes documentary portraits of anti-Japanese war veterans. Their works not only have a sense of form in photography aesthetics, but also have photographer's thinking and social value.

In addition, the nominated three groups of works focus on the Jewish community in Kaifeng, the impact on the local environment and people before and after the Three Gorges Project, and the embrace of Liang (sorry, I don't quite remember the specific contents of this group of works).

Contrast wiki's explanation of documentary photography;

Photographers try to take real, objective and usually frank photos of specific topics, usually people.

It is worth mentioning that among the above two winners, Li Juanhui was selected by the "public judges" (the audience was mostly photographers and photo editors from professional fields, as well as some ordinary enthusiasts), while Ma Jinhui was judged by Emma Raynes from Ma Genan.

Of course, the purpose of OFPiX Foundation must also be explained here (the purpose of the Foundation determines what kind of works it will choose to win the prize, so it is necessary to explain): encourage those who pay attention to public topics, strive to change stereotypes, promote communication, trigger actions, and participate in the semantic construction of topics.

Of course, the example given here is only one aspect of the field of modern documentary photography, which does not mean that documentary photography is over. In order to better understand documentary photography, I choose some famous documentary photographers mentioned in Wikipedia. Look at these famous artists and their works, and you should have a general feeling about documentary photography.

Eddie Adams

Henri Cartier Bersson

W. Eugene Smith

Don McCullin

Nan Goldin

Steve McCurry

Dorothea Langer

Eugè ne Atge

Eugene Richards

Having said so much, I feel as if I haven't made it clear. In a word, I tend to abandon the word "humanistic photography" and leave it to forum photographers. The more formal names should be documentary photography, street photography, news photography or report photography.

Finally, why is the 35mm lens called "humanistic head"? Because this focal segment is most often used to shoot documentary works. Look at the name on it. Many fans are 35mm and 50mm.