Old Photos (Treasure Edition) Lu (Treasure Edition)

Author: Feng Keli
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-08-01
Features: The birth of photography provided a vivid and stable reference for people to understand history. Compared to written records, photographs are often more intuitive and certain. With the click of a camera shutter, a scene of history is frozen just like this. "Old Photos" attempts to make changes in this regard, placing photographs at the center of observation and letting them speak for themselves. Sometimes, the words and meanings contained in a photograph go far beyond what a few simple historical conclusions can encompass. Only by acknowledging and listening to the words of photographs can history become vivid and lively. "Old Photos" has always focused on presenting historical details. This is partly related to the characteristics of photographs themselves, as every photograph is composed of numerous details. Even an ordinary family photograph reveals every expression, style of clothing, and object in the scene, making it impossible to hide anything. It can be said that displaying old photographs is displaying the details of history. This applies to photographs. The narrative of details is also evident in the text of "Old Photos." In this issue, Mr. Sanmu's "Teacher-Disciple Relationship in Different Eras" features a student's "dedication" to a teacher during the Cultural Revolution. This individual not only failed to observe the etiquette of a "disciple" but spoke to the teacher in a commanding tone, filled with grammatical errors and crude language, making it worthy of inclusion in a modern "Laughing Forest." Ma Siyao's "Grandpa" describes the Great Famine of the early 1960s: "Grandpa developed edema, and pressing his limbs left indentations. He couldn't work during the day and had to lean on the wall to walk. At night, Grandpa sat with a few elderly men who also suffered from edema on a heated kang, a traditional bed. They placed a large pot on the ground, filled with a few beans and some sheep bones picked up from the roadside, boiling a soup said to cure edema. The old men drank the soup, chatted, and stayed up until dawn." The detail reveals the persistence of survival and the demeanor of the old men "drinking soup, chatting, and staying up until dawn," which is precisely the "alphabet of life" mentioned by the French Roland Barthes. It is like a series of jumping notes, playing a moving symphony of life. The meaning conveyed by this detail cannot be encompassed by any of the various historical conclusions about that famine. Details are like a magnifying glass for history, making sealed years and hazy pasts clear and vivid. What "Old Photos" does is merely provide a small stand for these magnifying glasses.