Lu Xun once criticized the photographer's behavior, which led everyone to reflect! This kind of photo finally quit the stage.

Contemporary photographers like to seek novel photography, but have you ever reviewed the early traditional photographers?

Photography is an academic subject. From theoretical research to professional photographers, anyone can become a photographer, but their posts are different. Lu Xun has his own views on photography. His "On Photography" written in 1924 is a famous work by Lu Xun. He saw and heard more about photography than ordinary people at that time, and Lu Xun would also look at photography from a sociological point of view. The photography part discussed in famous articles enriched the content of China's photography history.

photography and photography were born in western countries in the late 193s (on August 19th, 1839, French published "Daguerre Photography", which was recognized as the birth day of photography in the world), and were introduced to China in the 184s.

Since photography was introduced into China, there have been endless voices against photography. Scholars in the late Qing Dynasty knew little about photography knowledge, and because of ignorance, photography, a western equipment, was not accepted by Chinese people.

Before 1895, when Lu Xun was young, he had a photo studio in his hometown of Shaoxing, Zhejiang. When the photo studio first appeared, people went from contempt to opposition and finally to acceptance. One of the most ridiculous reasons is the fear of being "taken away" by the camera. Is this like we always feel nervous in front of the camera? It turned out that we were not afraid, and people of that era were obviously more afraid.

Lu Xun hit the nail on the head when he talked about photography, and wrote why all the photos left by people before were full-length photos, but not half-length.

"At that time, people did patronize taking pictures, and I don't know who it was, or unlucky people, or the new party (reformist figures)." A few people who dared to eat crabs were afraid to take pictures. In those days, there were full-length portraits and family portraits, but later they developed into costumes, but no one took busts. "It's just that busts are generally taboo because they are like waist cuts. Naturally, the waist chop was abolished in the Qing Dynasty, but we can still see Grandpa Bao's Bao Mian (Bao Gong's nephew) in the operas. How terrible it is, even if it is the quintessence of the country, it is not desirable for others to impose it on me. It is indeed appropriate not to take photos. "

Lu Xun wrote such a passage, explaining why he didn't take a bust portrait. The reason is actually related to the background of the times, which is considered unlucky and taboo.

Lu Xun introduced the photo studio in his eyes like this: "A big coffee table with a hat rack, a tea bowl, a hookah, a flowerpot and a few spittoons shows that there is a lot of phlegm in this person's tracheal branches, which must be spit out one after another. People, whether standing or sitting, or holding a book in their hands, or hanging a big timetable on their skirts, can still know when he was taking pictures with a magnifying glass, and they can't use magnesium light at that time, so there is no need to suspect that it was night. "

Lu Xun has a keen insight and memory since he was a child, so that at the age of 43, he can still write his childhood memories in words, and even remember the time of taking pictures at that time. From the above, we can see that Lu Xun has a deep research on "magnesium light". If you don't understand what the role of magnesium light is? I'm sure you've seen people in the Qing Dynasty taking pictures on TV. After a flash of "bang" and smoke, the photographer said, "All right", which finished taking pictures. Its function is to eliminate the shadow of the face and make the face receive light evenly, which is the prototype of the flash.

Before the Republic of China, people were very particular about body posture, which can be reflected from "standing like a pine, sitting like a clock and walking like the wind". Before the Republic of China, the way of taking pictures was too stiff and restrained. When people took pictures, they would appear "rigid", at least in terms of aesthetics now, lacking vivid and interesting movements and physical expressions.

At the beginning of the Republic of China, the scale of photo studios was constantly expanding, and the art of photography was gradually accepted by the world, and it gradually became popular. It also slowly began to accept new shooting methods, such as bust portrait, artificial scene photo (Lu Xun's classic portrait is bust portrait), etc. It was no longer a single sitting portrait, because such a sitting posture was just like a sculpture. Lu Xun talks about "secondary exposure"

Secondary exposure is to synthesize two or more photos and finally get a work with two or more subjects.

photography is inseparable from innovation. In the initial stage, people's aesthetic level is also constantly improving, especially the literati will be bored with such dull works, and even spit on and reject them. In this context, the older generation of photographers began to innovate and tried to make two exposures on the negative. Unexpectedly, this shooting technique was all the rage and was sought after and loved by photographers all over the country.

The widely handed down "self-seeking map" and "self-seeking map" are synthesized by the second exposure of the negative.

The "self-seeking map" is a picture of a person as a slave and a master. The left half of him kneels to the right with his head down, and the right half of him sits facing the left and looks at the ledger.

The "two-self picture" is a picture of a person as a beggar and a savior. The left half of himself kneels and reaches up to the right, while the right half of himself sits with money in his hand and reaches to the left. Lu Xun criticized these two photography methods, because they violated the original intention of photography. Photography should be a medium to record and carry beautiful, authentic, interesting and rich cultural connotations, and photography should not be turned into a tool to satisfy morbid psychological desires.

under the influence of such positive thoughts, people have realized the real intention of photography and abandoned it one after another. Most photographers have also realized their mistakes, which makes the two shooting methods of "seeking for self" and "seeking for self" gradually withdraw from the stage. The template of photography market is single, which Lu Xun thinks.

Lu Xun has lived in Beijing for 14 years, and he will go out for a stroll every weekend. He noticed a photo studio in Liulichang, Beijing, and every time he passed by, he would find that the window where photos were displayed would always be replaced with photos of different people, except one that never changed. This photo is Mei Lanfang's stills "The Goddess Scatters Flowers" and "Daiyu Buries Flowers".

Daiyu buries flowers

Tiannv scatters flowers

From Lu Xun's records, it can be seen that he is quite repulsive to this kind of photo which only imitates appearance but lacks expression, and does not show independent personality, and has its own shape but no spirit.

Mei Lanfang's stills were treated as samples at that time, just like our wedding photo studio, children's photo studio and * * * photo studio now. If you can't pose, just shoot according to the samples and imitate the appearance.

In those days, the photographers were all herd-minded, and they all took pictures according to the samples put by photographers, lacking creativity. At that time, Feng Zihe, a famous Shanghai actress, sat on a short railing and took an artistic photo, which was instantly popular. Everyone went to the photo studio to imitate this posture, and the portrait of Feng Ling sitting on the railing was used by a large number of photographers.

always imitating, lacking innovation, and the photos taken are the same. What's it like? Is it like the current photo studio? If two people hold the same wedding photos, they will all be the same except their faces. As a photographer, we should not only imitate, but also try to innovate and change, take some photos that are normal and do not violate ethics, pay attention to expressing meaning and truth, and not cater to some people for the benefit. This is the pursuit of our photographers. Photo (1) Lu Xun (4) Photo Studio (1)