I will be your mirror: An Ode to Contemporary World Photographers: An Ode to Contemporary World Photographers

Author: Gu Zheng
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2003-10-01
Features: No category of artists invests their lives as deeply as photographers. They "impale" themselves with cameras, willing to risk their lives for photography. Famous pioneers include Robert Capa, and hundreds of photojournalists have indeed died in the line of duty, one after another—photography is a profession? Even the most reclusive and obscure photographers are those who shout alone at the world. In Confessions of Contemporary World Photographers, we will read interviews with over 20 of the most important photographers of this century, deepening our understanding of contemporary photographic concepts in the world; at the same time, from the depths of these photographers' "personal experiences," we capture the intellectual brilliance that this art uniquely radiates. Thus, the true significance of this book lies in: through images and confessions, declaring the artistic value of photography—it is like language, capturing a moment of things and emitting a conscious spiritual force. Although the photographers in the book have their own perspectives, they perfectly align with a quote by Jean Baudrillard: photography has a kind of illusion. That illusion occurs the moment the lens encounters objective reality, and all privacy is ultimately exposed to the public. In its view, the image is frozen, time and events are repeatedly retold, appearing as a scene beyond the of our lives. This is the most important work by art critic Gu Zheng in recent years, who is the most skilled in writing about photography in China. Chen Danqing wrote a long preface for this book, with excerpts that are deeply moving.