As part of the first Beijing Photo Biennial, which runs through December 7 in several different venues, the Three Shadows Photography Art Centre has organized several events, including an exhibition focussing on developments in Chinese photography since 1990, From New Photography to Rookie Award: Three Shadows’ Collection.
This retrospective exhibition offers an overview on the turning point in photography since the post-Mao economic reforms of the 1990s. Unlike the photography that focused on aesthetic form or social criticism, which characterized the period following the Cultural Revolution, Chinese photography in the 1990s (sometimes called “New Photography”) changed its vocabulary. Freed from their political-artistic straitjacket, Chinese photographers of this new generation turned toward the self, giving free rein to their individual imaginations and perspectives.
Even if the political and social approaches remain, Chinese photographers have added a personal vision to their photographs, reflecting their own confusion and anxiety in a constantly evolving society. This is how Adou, for example, reconnects with the mountains of his native province (Sichuan), shooting film portraits striking in their ingenuity and melancholy.
With color and black-and-white, digital and film, figurative and abstract, documentary and purely aesthetic, monumental triptychs and smaller formats, the Three Shadows Centre has brought together every stripe of contemporary photography. Young photographers appear alongside all the big names of Chinese photography: experimental photographer RongRong, Wang Ningde and his enigmatic characters with their eyes closed, Liu Heung Shing’s photo documents of China’s 1980s boom, Liu Zheng’s fantastic and theatrical scenes, among many others.
With From New Photography to Rookie Award: Three Shadows’ Collection is asserting its central role in promoting awareness and a better understanding of Chinese photography.
Photographers : Chen Baosheng, Liu Heung Shing, Mo Yi, Zhang Hai’er, Chen Lingyang, Gao Bo, Han Lei, He Chongyue, Hong Lei, Liu Zheng, RongRong, Wang Ningde, Xing Danwen, Xiong Wenyun, Zhao Liang, Zhuang Hui, Zuoxiao Zuzhou, Cai Dongdong, Qiu, A Dou, Zhang Xiao, Chen Zhe, Zhang Jin, Li Jun.
From New Photography to Rookie Award : Three Shadows’ Collection
Until January 26th, 2014
Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
155A Caochangdi, Chaoyang District
Beijing, 100015
China
+86 10 6432 2663
[email protected]
http://www.threeshadows.cn
