How to be a curator?

The rapid development of China's economy has attracted worldwide attention.

China has historical resources of ancient civilization, tourism in China and a warm world.

Therefore, in order to stimulate local economic development and expand the popularity of local tourism, local governments in China have tried their best to promote tourism by using 18 kinds of martial arts. Because photography has these elements, photography festivals all over the country have mushroomed. A wide variety of photography festivals really provide a good photography platform for photographers and even photographers. The popularity of photography exhibitions also gave birth to a group of film festival editors, who carefully planned, screened and arranged exhibitions to show photographers' excellent works to the audience. This has indeed made great contributions to the prosperity and spread of photography.

However, in China, it is the practical curator who hasn't come out for a long time. Even though we have seen some clues of curators, due to the immaturity of China's image market, real curators are rare, and even if there are, they are still searching hard. Because, our picture market in China determines this groping process. Indeed, this road is difficult to walk.

Strictly speaking, a photography curator is not only a mature photo editor, but also a far-sighted photo market agent and an expert in publicity and promotion. Only in this way can he be called a curator. Because before launching celebrity photographers, the curator must first investigate the image market. They know what kind of photos are suitable for what kind of people's appetite. Where to exhibit, what kind of people to target, what kind of people can win favor and what kind of market can be sold. Then, we can find the photographer he wants in the photography circle and negotiate with him. After the two sides reached a distribution understanding, the curator funded and began to package photographers in all directions, including giving photographers albums, media publicity, compiling photographers' wonderful stories and so on. Then take charge of the photo exhibition, and then turn the photographer's works into commodities for sale. The photographer is only responsible for photography creation, and the rest is done by the curator. Curators and photographers honor and disgrace, take care of each other, ebb and flow, and even integrate. Excuse me, are there many such curators in China?

For several years in a row, the photography festival is still lively, but we haven't found a photographer who became famous through a photography festival; I haven't found any photographer who has become worth a hundred times and famous all over the world through the photography festival; I haven't found any photo festival that has formed a market and climate. What we have seen is mostly for a lively and magnificent scene. After the film festival was withdrawn, people went to the empty building, and it was impossible to leave a swan song forever. On the contrary, photographers spend a lot of money on exhibitions, but apart from letting the audience give directions, there are few surprises and few professional photographers come to visit the exhibitions, which is really timid.

Recently, surprisingly, some economic agents outside the photography circle took a fancy to the photography market in China, and they began to prepare to develop the image market in China. Ma Weidou, a well-known expert in ancient culture, Xue Manzi, a cultural businessman, and Liu Lei, president of China Art Photography Society, signed contracts with many domestic photographers, preparing to really hype the image of China according to market rules. Mr Xue and Mr Ma are convinced that photography should have a place in the big market in the future. Now, the image market in China has just started, even stumbling like a toddler, but it will grow up soon. China is vast in territory and abundant in natural resources, and its market is large enough to attract the world's attention. We China people should first do our own things well. In fact, in recent years, the embryonic form of curator has appeared in China, such as "798" Chen Guangjun, whose century-old image gallery has signed contracts with many domestic photographers to plan, publish and promote it. It's just not strong enough, but it's a gratifying step and everyone has gained something.

We should understand the true meaning of the curator and not show off.

It is not easy to be a real curator. They should not only have Bole's image vision, but also have eagle-like market insight and certain economic strength, all of which are indispensable. China's soil and water have nurtured thousands of excellent photographers in Qian Qian. They have been sucking the milk of 5,000 years of culture since childhood, so they have a rich background. I believe that the spring of China's image market is coming, because the prosperity of China culture cannot be separated from photography.

"Curators", with the gradual clarity of the image culture market, their faces are gradually clear.