Liu Zheng

Author: Li Mei
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: This series of photographs, titled "The People of China," spanned seven years from 1994 to 2000, and this was tied to a sense of responsibility, as well as my family, education, and experiences. I grew up in a particularly orthodox family where both my parents were Communist Party officials, and they were very strict with my upbringing. I graduated from Beijing Institute of Technology with a major in optical precision instruments, which is essentially camera design and manufacturing. I had been passionate about painting since I was about four or five years old. During my university years, it was a particularly bleak time for Chinese new humanistic painting, and I completely lost faith in traditional Chinese painting. At that moment, thanks to my field of study, I began to explore photography and discovered that it held something very valuable—it allowed me to create things as I saw fit. From then on, I never gave up photography, not even for a single day.
Liu Zheng's "The People of China" is not just a photographic composition but also a reconfiguration of history. It is undeniable that his memories and knowledge of major historical events were transmitted to him in various ways and became references and foundations for his own memories, including images created by later generations. However, he unhesitatingly repurposed these images, regardless of whether they had been distorted by time, space, or ideology. He embraced these memory materials as captives but also deliberately sought to break free from and transcend the obstacles they imposed. Through his personalized photographic reproductions, he transformed them into a new form of memory, marked with Liu Zheng's personal imprint. Then, he transmitted these memories to others through his own photographic works. At this point, he became a link in the unbroken chain of perpetual memory transmission, all connected through photography.
The cost of all this is that while creating a personal form of memory, he also runs the risk of being unified and utilized by some collective memory and collective consciousness. However, for him, this was not about verifying the authenticity of history, which goes beyond the capabilities of a photographer. What he aimed to do was confirm his own memories and find a historical image of "the people of China" that he recognized.