Chapter 3 Part 2 Image-2
Dong Song Lighting believes that photography "shatters memory".It was this "sense of absence" that lured him into photography.
Kruger puts it on point: "There's a little fake narrative going on in everyone's head all the time."
Golding's consciousness as a woman trumps that of a photographer.She said: "If I keep the record of my life with photography, then no one can correct my life." Daido Moriyama said: "No, no one can grasp the world."
Salgado, a radical leftist, insists on "respecting and understanding the subject", and believes that "living together" with the people he photographs is "the most important thing".But he is far more sober-minded than our pseudo-leftist artists, and understands that art is based on "personality"."To be in touch with the people of the land and yet still be alone ... This duality is important and indispensable for photography," he said.
Youshan Jixin said otherwise: "No matter who you are, if you can't take a good picture when you meet for the first time, you will not be able to take a good picture in the rest of your life." The photography devils Kertesz and Bresson who are good at capturing human nature have never Publish the dogma of "deep into life" and "experience life".The latter said: "Except for poetic expression, I am not interested in the documentary nature of photography at all." His creed is only "to pay the greatest respect to the subject and photography itself".
I would venture to add the words of Hiroshi Sugimoto, who said: "The history of photography is the history of human fantasy. Human beings have the ability to see phantoms because they have vision."
Nine
In the speeches of writers, painters or musicians, it is difficult for me to find the pleasure, aggression and richness that photographers can give.Abe, a Japanese who interviewed Fokong, said: "People like artists don't necessarily have to be aware of what they do all the time. Because it's the artist's prerogative to be inconsistent with words and deeds."
Abe classifies photographers as artists.But writers, painters, and musicians are full of living or dead historians and admonishers, and "art" is always placed in the court of historical theory - photography has no judges, only witnesses, and photographic works seem to have both revelations and evidence , the plaintiff, the multiple nature of the prosecution, in photography and the various issues involved, the theoretical lawsuit is invalid.
No class of artist risked their lives as much as the photographer, the most famous pioneer being Robert Capa, and hundreds of photojournalists died in the line of work - is photography a profession?Even the most selfish and secluded serious photographers are the ones who shout out to the world alone.
The subjects interviewed in this book are almost all eloquent and unstoppable. If a photographer has a vocation, it is to stare at things we ignore every day.Therefore, they have amazing insights on various issues, and they blurt out, as if they are world, photography, and at the same time their own chief spokesperson.
About religion: When Serrano's work "Christ in the Urine" was questioned, he replied generously: "God allows me to make it!"
About death: His experience shooting in the morgue is: "All corpses still live with souls."
On race: He photographs the Ku Klux Klan noting that "many members are very poor" with "kind eyes" peeking out of white hoods.He discovered that he and the Ku Klux Klan members were actually "minority groups."
About the West: Biad, who travels between the United States and Africa, looks at the world-famous South African democracy: "It's all wrong. What the West is doing in Africa now is exactly the same as what the United States did to the Indians." Pointing out sharply, "People will listen to their own propaganda indifferently, and we exist as natural enemies... It is too late, the end of the game, it is too late."
About life: The Frenchman Focon explained his works in this way: "There is no concept of 'generation' in my world. The characters on the stage are all children, boys and teenagers. They have no 'fertility' and can be said to be 'prototypes'." Things are worlds that have stopped."
About photography: The words of the philosopher Baudrillard have his housekeeping skills: "Things are covered by meaning and context, and photography strips away all these meanings and context from the surrounding objects. I almost I don’t shoot people because people carry too much meaning.” His understanding of “Chamber of the Light” is in one sentence: “Bart’s analysis is to understand photography as a kind of disappearance, which is very wonderful. “Chamber of Light” really It touches on the heart of photography."
About time: When Daido Moriyama was asked whether Klein's work was outdated, he said: "What is outdated is the world in the photograph."
On the city: "A small city is a short story, and a big city is a novel," he said cheerfully.
On influence: "Anyone is an influence," says Bailey.
About art: Biad said: "Generally speaking, the current art is too artistic."
On art education: Bead again: "The very idea of going to art school to be an artist is inherently problematic. Those guys are almost self-centered, and a lot of them are boring."
About the artist: Still Biard: "I think Warhol hated Duchamp, because Duchamp made Warhol...he is a being displayed."
About movies: Klein said: "People watch movies more than watching photography collections. Movies can only start from the beginning and obey its unfolding." Many photographers admit that their inspiration comes from movies.
About TV: Baudrillard said: "In the image culture headed by TV, what photography wants to do is to cut off the flow of this image and propose complete silence and stillness." Kruger said otherwise: "TV is so powerful because The best writing is on TV, which is why the Republican Party hates Hollywood so much." Of course, she was talking about American TV.
On nudity: what Tennyson calls "man's defenseless state."
...
Stop quoting.The wonderful expressions in the book are a hundred times more than this.I write the preface without looking at the pictures in the book—to tell the truth about showing off: one of my experiences of being favored by New York is to watch the "original" (VINTAGE) of photography—the book is published, and the pictures are there, so that they can interact with words as evidence.Although I seduce readers for this book, Abe said first: "No matter how you explain it, the result will always be beyond the work itself."
ten
And this book is just a few photos.Who can't take pictures?Who hasn't seen the photo?If it is not extremely sensitive, even the best photos are only for a glimpse, as if we have passed our whole life with our eyes open--the only photos that can conclusively prove that we have lived in this world.In the event of a fire or earthquake, as far as I know, no matter how wealthy people in western communities flee, they only carry family photo albums with them.
This matter has profound meaning.
In the awareness of our media, art museums and art education, "photography" has already existed, but "photography culture" has not really happened yet.The situation in the publishing world is slightly different. Shandong Pictorial Publishing House's "Old Photos" series for the public, if examined with sharp eyes, can ask the big questions behind the photos.A certain "part" of avant-garde art is acutely aware of the sharpness of photography, but unfortunately there are more "movement" elements than photography.A while ago, the media reported on the international photography exhibition in Pingyao, which is a great thing, but it always feels like a literary party...
The awakening of photography should be the awakening of people. I see that countless appearances and secrets of China are still sleeping in front of the camera.
On the important stage of world photography, I am often shocked by the depth of photography in the small country of Dongying.I'm not jealous of Warhol and Duchamp, but I can't help being jealous of the Japanese - this is not a matter of national vanity and self-esteem - our sports, movies, and avant-garde art (including limited photography) have already "goed to the world However, in "World Photography", although "Old China" or "New China" under the lens of Western photographers often appear, IMHO: Chinese photographers are rare or not seen at all.
This is a serious question.
Photography is more serious and ruthless than any art.Photography is difficult for society to navigate.Only photography dares to be outside art, like most photographers in the book, they would rather suspend their identities.They are a small group of desperate people deep in their hearts.
Barthes has a point in downplaying the book's extraordinarily personal, stylized, or journalistic photography.But he has insight into the unruly nature of photography, and he actually regards photography as "the crazy sister".He found that "sustained gaze" on photographs is always accompanied by "potential madness" because "gaze is influenced by both truth and madness."When he found that the "thought" of photography in the writing of "Luminous Room" is "this was there" - a more comprehensive translation is: "things that once existed, but no longer exist" - the conclusion is: "Photography, madness, are related to something unknown", so what is the "unknown"?He called it the "compassion" of the human heart: From one photo to another, I... frantically stepped into the scene, entered the image, and embraced the dead or the dying with both arms, just like Nietzsche did: January 3, 1889 That day he flung himself on a sacrificed horse and wept bitterly: maddened by mercy.
At the end of "The Chamber of Light," he writes:
Society works to appease photography, to temper madness.For this madness is a constant threat to the beholder of the photograph...Therefore, society has two paths of prevention: The first path is to regard photography as an art, because no art is mad.The photographer thus single-mindedly competes with art, willingly accepting the rhetoric of painting and its noble exhibition method. ...Another way to appease is to make it popular, group, and popular... because popularized photographic images, in the name of display and explanation, derealize this world full of contradictions and conflicts.
What are the options for photography:
Crazy or wise?Photography can be one of two things... making photography subject to the civilized symbols of a beautiful dream, or, facing the obstinate reality awakened from photography.
Without the context, these words may be incomprehensible, so I read (Taiwanese translation) "Ming Chamber" repeatedly.He was talking about the West—I have been in the West for a long time, and I have gradually gained a deeper understanding of what he said.China's current progress has begun to take shape in the landscape he outlined for image culture: images are flooding around us: "artistic" or "popular".However, "the stubborn reality awakened from photography" is a rare experience. Once encountered, it seems to be stared at by eyes, which is unavoidable, frightening and even embarrassing.Photography is like speech.In a country where honest speech has not been fully expressed, and has not yet realized that speech is speech, the situation of photography must be ambiguous.Photographers may not know it.
What touched me in this book was not the photos, but the sharpness of the words.Furthermore, I would say,
Photography should not be viewed only in the pages of a book.Witnessing an original photo is more convincing than witnessing the truth through a lens.Gazing at the texture and size of the original—and this texture and size are by no means only the physical aspects of the work—is an irreplaceable viewing experience that deeply affects a person.
May the great world of photography meet our gaze directly.How long we have to wait?At this moment, I would like to thank Mr. Gu Zheng for his persistent editing for many years, and thank Shanghai Literature and Art Publishing House for making this book.
Written in Beijing on July 25, 2003
one
Socrates said: "The unexamined life is a worthless life."——The ancient Greek text translated as "examined", I don't know if it has the meaning of "watching".It is far-fetched to use this philosophical term to talk about visual culture, especially photography, and when Socrates never dreamed that photography would appear in human beings.
There is another proverb in ancient Greece, inscribed in temples, which can be reflected in the meaning of Socrates, called "know yourself".The Greek myth of the beautiful boy Narcissus learning from the water, even reveals the extreme narcissism of human beings—in fact, the desire to know themselves—nature.
How do we "know ourselves"?With what can we "examine" life?
two
This summer, the Department of Photography of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York held a large-scale retrospective exhibition of the German photographer Sander. The seven series of portraits he took for his compatriots at the beginning of the last century are displayed in precious original editions: industry, agriculture, business, education, and military , priests, craftsmen, employees, policemen, prostitutes, financiers, politicians, artists, prisoners, disabled people... including photos and death masks of his dead son who was serving a prison sentence for Nazi persecution.Because of its objectivity and integrity, this set of works was banned by the Third Reich.
The commentary on the exhibition reads: "Photography works that remove prejudice and directly observe are better than the truth of existence revealed to us by philosophical and sociological texts." Sander's own confession is printed on the wall at the entrance: "I would like to use Faithful observation contributes to history a portrait of our time." And Benjamin's evaluation at the time was: "The face of a person reveals a new and immeasurable meaning in these photos."
I collected Sander's fine print collection more than ten years ago.Seeing the originals this time—the date in his own handwriting on the lower right corner of each photograph—is still deeply moving.Everyone he photographed was staring at me while being stared at by me.They are Germans before World War II. They have no names and no surnames. Most of them are dead according to their ages. It is impossible for me to know them. Face and gaze, see ourselves.
three
"Portrait painting" has run through the history of art for thousands of years, and has gradually shifted from the early function of worship to art appreciation.The "person" captured by the camera transcends art and becomes an irrefutable "evidence" of life and time based on Barthes' definition of photography-"he was here before".There is no doubt about the essential difference between the aesthetic value of a painting and the anthropological value of a photograph, and the corroborating function of photography goes beyond portraiture.
Marx foresaw that technological progress would profoundly affect the superstructure and subvert the existing culture.In his article "Art in the Age of Machine Reproduction", Benjamin affirmed that new art will lead to new modes of perception, and the variation of modes of perception will change simultaneously with society. He pointed out that the era of photography's invention coincided with the advent of sociology: Great meaning.For more than 100 years, photography's functions of confirmation, information and dissemination have far surpassed any period in human history.To name a few, Atge’s photos of the empty city of Paris, the nocturnal travelers under the lens of Brassai, the war photography in which Capa and countless war correspondents died, Wiki’s urban crime scene illuminated by flashlights, Kurt’s The imprints of time and the various states of the world captured by Zeus and Bresson... Geography, customs, fashion, biology, astronomy, anthropology, medicine, education, commercial advertisements, criminal investigation files, all achieved unprecedented development in the 20th century by virtue of photography .In 1879, when Mubridge used 12 or even 24 cameras to continuously shoot horses running, he inadvertently gave birth to the film. At the beginning of the 20th century, Lenin declared that film is "the most important art of our century", and Mussolini called it "a powerful weapon".
Four
"Photography" does not mean taking pictures.Photographs are not the same as photographic works.Whether "photographic work" is art has been debated for hundreds of years, and its core question echoes the question of modern experimental art: "What is art?"
As early as Benjamin pointed out in his article "A Little History of Photography" that instead of arguing about "photography as art", it is more relevant to think about "art as photography".In his day, he lamented, the latter line of thought, which had more social implications, "has received little attention."However, the phrase "art as photography" is not only photography, but also a reflection of art history, which has also been given a new perspective.
In the past 30 years, important museums and art colleges in advanced countries have added photography departments and related courses. In other words, without photography research, the operation and art education of today's art museums is like a lack of an organ.Most of the forward-looking themes of the world's important exhibitions are video works including photography, which has been the main trend in the past ten years and is still in the ascendant.The above-mentioned retrospective of Sander's photography is just one of countless thematic exhibitions held by authoritative institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Since World War II, international photography has been full of creative ideas. It has surpassed the traditional photography concept of "witnessing" and "confirmation", and has adopted multimedia technologies such as virtualization, appropriation, juxtaposition, projection, video, and film. In every aspect of the macro and micro, Shaping the visual culture of our time.Today's photography no longer tries to compete with "art", but as the virtual realist photographer Jeff Wall said: digital photography and computer technology can enable us to continue the unfinished business of painting art in the Goya era - "art as "Photography", half a century after Benjamin, has become a grand sight in our generation.
Fives
The 20th century was the century of images.The dominance of fame, like various modern and postmodern paintings, is also disturbed by the reproduction of images, and eventually overwhelmed - the internal relationship between art and photography has always been a proposition that European and American visual culture continues to pay attention to.
China is a big and ancient country of painting. Since the "popularization" of Western painting and its education in the past hundred years, it has formed an unprecedentedly large so-called "art world", which still covers and equates "visual culture" with a specious concept of painting; photography and When film was introduced to China, it was almost synchronized with the West. It is a veritable "advanced culture". Little attention has been paid to it.” In the past ten years, although China’s ambiguous “experimental art” has “goed to the world”, it is actually Chinese films that have truly gained international recognition.
Photography, between Chinese contemporary painting and film, is in a difficult situation: just based on the market theory, the price of European and American paperback albums is higher than that of fine print albums, and the purchase and collection of cultural relics photos is even more "excellent" in the contemporary collection circle.In Beijing, tens of thousands of precious original photographs, including award-winning works and handwritten texts of photography veterans, were blatantly abandoned by state units, piled up on the street, and sold at cheap prices.
Ironically, China has also stepped into the video age, but the collective consciousness of video culture has been rash and ignorant, seriously lacking due respect and doubts: today's overwhelming advertisements, magazines, and the rapidly expanding video industry are all over isolated islands In addition to the general "art world", the cultural function of images is wasted, and the consumption of images is abused, which is far from the proposition of "art as photography".And the public is immersed in it, how to watch it?What is an image?How does the self-respect and self-discipline of video products enhance—or resist—the social effects and political power of video?Due to the partiality of the industry, all artists and their educators are safely divided into the two ends of the painting/video divide. The administrative division of art categories: Art Association, Film Association, and the old system of art education that cannot cross-talk are in this state solid foundation.
Painting and photography are not "disciplines", not "industries", and different tool skills do not mean the self-consciousness of creation.Regardless of the handicraft era of painting or the era of machine reproduction, if paintings or photographs are indeed endowed with life and meaning, it depends on whether the artist understands his own era and is rooted in viewing.
six
An unexamined life is a worthless life—doesn't the image without "understanding" mean the futility of looking?A koan involving "seeing" allows us to "examine" how a sensitive Chinese reacted to the rise of new technologies and new modes of perception a hundred years ago: the story is already famous, that is, during the Russo-Japanese War in 1905 The Chinese spy was killed by the Japanese army, and the onlookers looked indifferent.Mr. Lu Xun witnessed the video, and he abandoned medicine and turned to literature. The story is over now, and Zhou Lei, a Chinese scholar who recently lived in the United States, based on contemporary viewing theory, traced it in a special article. Analysis: The execution and onlookers in the video are the relationship between "seeing" and "being seen"; the video broadcast and students watching are also the relationship between "seeing" and "being seen"; when the execution is over, the Japanese students shouted "Long live", in Lu Xun's eyes, it is even more important; when he left the stage angrily, he was also watched by his Japanese classmates at the same time... The way to watch is not easy.At that time, Lu Xun realized the "great righteousness" from watching, and even realized the power of images.Years later, in another short essay, Lu Xun wrote: One day he proposed to his colleagues in the education field the idea of "future teaching may be assisted by slide lanterns".At this moment, what surprised him was not his indifference to his compatriots, but his indifference to images.
The Chinese say: "Seeing is believing", and there is another Chinese saying that "seeing is believing" without the heart of "examining". life", Benjamin wrote in "On the Philosophy of History": "The picture of the past flashes by. The past can only be grasped in its flashing image, at which it can be recognized and no longer Reappear." Therefore, if it is not an exaggeration, another sentence quoted by him in the last century is like a proverb: "The illiterate of the future will not be those who cannot write, but those who cannot take pictures."
When Sander stared at his compatriots with the camera, Bresson pressed the shutter at the "decisive moment", Capa walked through the flames of war, Goldin was in the dark room lovers, Salgado witnessed the mighty hard labor of gold diggers... In the world, photography is like an apocalypse, sharp and straightforward, revealing the historical truth of the passing time and the inexplicable moments of existence-at this time, the problem is not only about photography, as Wittgenstein said: "What philosophy left behind It is the original world", with the help of the master's eyes, isn't it the "original world" that we encounter in classic photography?
seven
In the early spring of this year, we are glad to see the grand photography exhibition "Chinese People" held by Guangdong Museum of Art, and we finally got to see part of "China as it is".Although the title of the exhibition is too large and inappropriate, the exhibited works present a relatively real side of our society, and the National Art Museum's attitude of focusing on documentary photography is commendable after all.
Later, the Chinese Contemporary Photography Exhibition, curated by Wu Hung, a professor of Chinese descent at the University of Chicago, was co-organized with the International Center of Photography in New York.Among them, China's video works, which are generally called "avant-garde art", echo the concept of contemporary photography in the world, and prove to the outside world that the new Chinese photography group has already understood the power of photography as speech.
In the past twenty or even fifty years, China's film festivals have changed from serving the propaganda ideology in the early days to the so-called "art photography" in the late stage: folk scenes, superficial world conditions, "beauty of form", "beauty of human body" and so on - the real On the contrary, it is the commercial photography and experimental photography that are more than a decade old, but the former is too noisy, and the latter is too marginal. Among them, serious photography that directly explores the truth and is sensitive to cognition is rare and difficult to come out. , even if it comes out, like dust, it will inevitably be ignored by the public and "experts" who are indifferent to images.Our viewing instinct seems to fall asleep on purpose, unwilling to wake up: the eloquence of images is far better than that of words, a nation that has not been fully enlightened and continuously educated by image culture, in front of images—as in front of living things—only remains indifferent. That's all, or as Barthes said: the way to tame photography is to make it "art".
However, Benjamin has already issued a warning with the words of Sacha Stern: "Photography as art is a dangerous field." He pointed out that the "beauty" of the world is enough to blind photography and obliterate its cognitive function. At present, domestic cultural studies scholars The translation and introduction of world image theory is quite impressive, surpassing any previous period, but it is a pity that there has been no widespread response.Fortunately, the two exhibitions mentioned above have established a clear stand, trying to restore photography's belated position in China, and reveal "what is photography" to the public.
We are always late.Fortunately, there is a saying "never too late".It doesn't matter whether it is late or not late in the operation of life: as long as you are willing to stop "watching", especially, as long as the camera is present, life may show value, just like the development of photos-what is value?The reason why people are human is because they know how to examine themselves.Photography is in China. It is not that there is no good photography in China, but when the camera sees us at any time, do we see photography?
This year's "Forbidden City International Photography Exhibition" invites 30 outstanding international photographers and contemporary Chinese photographers to jointly exhibit.If a photography exhibition is set up to make good use of cultural strategies, its potential and social impact will be greater than that of an art exhibition.When this world-wide video culture once again highlights its intellectual and humanistic value, Chinese exhibition planners have already sensed it.We should remember: the Forbidden City was once the place where the first batch of Western photographers visited and preserved images for the last generation of princes and grandchildren.Since then, we have learned about photography in addition to strong ships and guns in the West. Back then, the imperial court solemnly summoned Xilai’s photography. Today, photography has returned to the Forbidden City where it once admired.
October 18, 2004
"Film exhibition" and "photography" are two different concepts. "Chinese photography" and "photography in China" are also two different concepts.
China has long had film festivals, photographers and photographic works, but in our society and culture—rather than in the photography world—what is the position of photography?What effects did it have (or not have)?What do these effects (or lack thereof) imply?Is there any problem in it?If yes, what is the problem?In short, we now have the funds and enthusiasm to hold "film festivals", but does this drive society's awareness of "photography"?We talk about "Chinese photography", but are we aware of the real situation of "photography in China"?
This year seems to be an appropriate time to clarify different concepts and review the above issues.
This year is a memorable year for Chinese photography. In just one year, the exhibition space and discourse influence of photography in mainland China and internationally may exceed any previous period—except for the large-scale photography exhibition of Guangdong Museum of Art at the beginning of the year "Chinese People—" - Documentary in the Contemporary" and this "Dialogue of Civilizations - Forbidden City International Photography Exhibition", European and American countries hold six large-scale contemporary Chinese photography exhibitions at the same time (New York, Paris, Berlin, Netherlands, London, Tokyo, as for galleries in Beijing, Shanghai and other places and Exhibitions on Chinese images in small museums are not counted), among which "Between Past and Future: New Images from China" held at the International Center of Photography in New York in the summer is the largest, and it cooperates with a large number of related academic activities at the same time: Authoritative The June issue of the publication "American Art" uses an unconventional 28-page length and five special articles to introduce and comment on contemporary Chinese photography. These special articles are "Sixty Ways to Observe China", "The Chinese Dream in Images" ", "Academic Fight Back", "Young Beijing" and "Shanghai Spring".Such a concentrated and comprehensive introduction of a country's photography is a grand occasion that I have never encountered in the past twenty years.This autumn, I saw at least nine Chinese contemporary photography collections (including three personal photo collections) in the library of the Pompidou Center in Paris.
In China, we cannot see these film festivals and albums.Even if there are albums entering China, cultural officials, intellectuals, artists, and college students hardly know about them, and may not be interested in knowing them.Just for information, the National Gallery, Academy of Fine Arts or academic institutions (including professional photography institutions) neither provide nor collect such materials, let alone the public.At the same time, the Chinese contemporary photography community is maturing with unprecedented vigor.The number of them is extremely limited, and most of them are outside the sight of the system or mainstream art. What they submit are not only photographic works, but also a large number of video culture issues. This is one of the many problems of "Photography in China".
If we understand the continuous, extensive and deep influence of photographic works and video culture in Western society, if we witness the close relationship between modern art galleries, art institutions, art education, publishing industry, communication industry and the public in Western countries, we will I will not be surprised why Chinese photography is so valued outside the world, and at the same time I will be very surprised why photography and video culture have been neglected in China for a long time, as if it is intentional-in today's current affairs that emphasize "advanced culture", in the field of visual art and communication In the field of humanities and academics such as media, do we really know what "advanced culture" is, and do we really have the attitude to actively "represent" it?
Why is photography so important?Because we live in the century of images.In this century, photography, as a brand-new medium, has caused profound changes in human viewing, thinking, interpretation and speech. This change is more important today than traditional painting, literature, and drama. sex.Photography is everywhere.The way photography affects us is that we are not aware of it, it changes us so deeply that we don't know it.Even photography is difficult to self-identify: its unlocatable nature, continuous updating of technology, and its ever-expanding scope of application make photography touch points and coverage far beyond what traditional art categories could or could not touch. And beyond the field of photography itself, it has become an indispensable part of philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, communication, journalism, psychology, iconography, phenomenology, scientific and technological research, military research, commercial application and various educational disciplines. Missing subjects.
In the end, no medium of communication can be so important to politics as photography, so that it can potentially dominate politics in turn. Seeking and constantly encountering new definitions and possibilities.
Photography and its research are not aesthetic and artistic studies, but cultural studies in the true sense.Fortunately, in the past ten years or so, a considerable number of translations and monographs have been published in the field of cultural studies in middle and high schools, which is quite meritorious.As far as I can get the Chinese translations and collections of local scholars, there are roughly the following works. Among them, none of the original authors of the translations is a photographer, but philosophers, thinkers, art historians, communication scholars and scholars in Europe and America in the last century critic:
Walter Benjamin: Art in the Age of Machine Reproduction, A Short History of Photography, Letters from Paris—Painting and Photography.
Roland Barthes: Chamber of Light.
Susan Sontag: On Photography.
John Berger: Ways of Seeing.
Gombrich: The image and the eye: Revisiting the psychology of image representation.
Marshall McLuhan: "Understanding Media", "The Essentials of McLuhan".
John Peters: The Frustration of Communication: A History of Communication Ideas.
Frank Hova: Dialogue with Master Photographers.
Ruan Yizhong: "World Masters of Photography", "New Contemporary Photography".Ruan Yizhong, Chen Chuanxing, Huang Chunming: "Seven Questions on Photography Aesthetics".
Edited by Luo Gang and Gu Zheng: "Visual Culture Reader", which included Bourdieu's "Social Definition of Photography", Baudrillard's "Disappearing Techniques", Sontag's "Fascism" Fascism", Conclini's "Reconstruction Passport—Visual Thoughts in the Multicultural Debate", Ross's "Visual Sexuality".
Edited by Zhou Xian: "Problems", which is included in the "Visual Culture" album, Zhou Xian's "Cultural Significance of Sight", and "The Practice of Seeing: Image, Power and Politics" co-written by Steken and Cartwright.
Edited by Sun Zhouxing and Gao Shiming: "Visual Thoughts—Proceedings of the International Symposium on "Phenomenology and Art".
Gu Zheng edited and wrote: "Confessions of Contemporary Photographers in the World", "The Labyrinth of Self", "There is No Reality Behind the Reality-Modern Photography Practice in the 20th Century", "Urban Expressions-Urban Images in the 20th Century".
The above works have not included all the bibliographies related to the study of video culture in the publishing industry in recent years, let alone similar works in the West. However, the above translations have long constituted the main line and standard of humanities and art research in the West. They are not only the exploration and elucidation of video culture , but also its introspection and criticism. Whenever we talk about the various aspects involved in video culture, our propositions, positions, concepts, and words, it is difficult to bypass the knowledge background and thinking framework provided by the original author of the translation. The evolution and potential of culture, opportunities and crises, and the consequent changes in social forms are all within the scope of the above-mentioned translations, and have opened up a rich and multi-speaking space for other and subsequent studies of the same kind.
Immediately, we will find the same question: In China, except for translators and very few scholars, are most photographers, artists, art educators, cultural officials, and exhibition planners willing to know and read these works?Do you have a little understanding of the knowledge information in it?Are visual arts students initially exposed to this type of general education?Even if it is the primary enlightenment of the world's video culture—or as the "immunization" education in the video age—what kind of people in China are the targets of this enlightenment or immunity?
The answer is blank.截至目前，以我在南北艺术院校的观察，影像文化教育甚至雏形未具，绝大部分院校的影像图文资料付之阕如，几乎等于零，研究生博士生十之有九对影像研究的知识背景全然无知。在艺术学生几乎人人手持数码相机的今天，大家是否明白这意味着什么？即使在最好的情况下，我们所能有的，只是书本，只是书面知识：在京城最好的书店里，除了极少数廉价印制的粗陋盗版，几乎没有一册像样的、国际水准的世界摄影经典或当代摄影集出售（去国外选购图书的“专业”人员是否想到摄影？），更没有摄影史系列图册，尤其是摄影史原版照片专题展览则长期缺席。而杰出的本土当代摄影在本土看不到，观众几乎全是西方人——在中国本土美术馆设置摄影专项收藏与研究机构（绝不是行政机构）的议事日程，乐观的期待是可能还要等一代人，因为事实上，除了上海博物馆与广东美术馆，我们至今没有真正意义上的美术馆（京城“中国美术馆”严格说来只是一座张挂图画的陈列馆）——与没有“影像文化”相对应，我们也没有“美术馆文化”——我们看到，种种优势不在视觉艺术与人文领域，而在奥运会：今日中国，起建几座世界超级水准的奥运会馆绝对比一座同样水准的美术馆重要一千倍。
“体育”与“艺术”无法并列排比，然而国情促使我下意识作出这荒谬的排比，并期待免于荒谬的回答——中国摄影的雄心与荣耀是什么？如果出现像跨栏健将“刘翔”那样杰出的摄影家，我们无比亢奋的民族意识将作何反应？会不会有所反应？
除了我们目睹的现实，没有答案。以下的对照不是答案，但或许不失为一种对照：跨栏比赛有比赛规则，裁判判分有计速秒针；摄影机快门也端赖秒针，但摄影不是比赛，没有规则，没有冠军、亚军与季军，千钧一发间，摁下快门的是摄影家本人，而摄影的光芒与魅力——或如鲍德里亚所言，事物转换为照片的过程有如“完美的犯罪”——乃是每一幅不可替代的照片本身。
这不是一篇论文，而是现状的陈述。我不是摄影家，不是文化研究者。我之敢于谈论摄影，是因摄影深深有教于我——“摄影在中国”的问题，终究是人的问题，教育的问题，人文水准的问题。人的觉醒，教育的品质，人文水准的提升，是真实迎对摄影的前提，而在影像时代，难以想像这觉醒的过程没有摄影的介入，这也是为什么摄影及其问题总是如此固执地迎对着我们。
2004年10月18日