Chinese Image Revolution

Author: Hu Wu Gong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Since the late 1970s, contemporary Chinese photography has "opened up" history, made the hidden "bright," and given everyone the possibility to step into history, filling in the irreproducible void of images. To achieve this great transformation, Chinese photography had to endure a difficult journey. On the historical timeline, the Chinese photographic revolution bore an undeniable mission! As one of the leading figures of the Shaanxi Group—a key collective in the new era of photography—Hu Wu Gong has been active at the forefront of contemporary Chinese photography. Together with Hou Dengke, who has passed away, they entered the public eye at the dawn of ideological liberation and became the earliest Shaanxi figures to awaken to and promote the modernization of photography. Living far from the cultural avant-garde centers of the time, they advocated a grassroots perspective and a truthful stance in photography, playing a resounding role in dismantling the power control of traditional ideological dogma over images, updating the concept of news photography, and revitalizing the view of architectural photography. They were also bold practitioners, planning and executing the revolutionary historical realism exhibition "The Hard Journey," which prominently displayed the historical and realistic value of images during China's transformative period. This exhibition became another milestone, following the initial "People's Mourning" and "Nature, Society, and Humanity," and later "A Moment in Ten Years."
Hu Wu Gong's entry into photography was as a journalist in the media, so discussing him inevitably involves news photography. In the true sense, Chinese news photography experienced a brief period of brilliance in the 1930s. After photography entered China, due to the historical limitations of a late-developing nation, modern media remained backward, and news photography failed to achieve an independent form. Photography's primary social function at the time was as a record of people's lives and a means of identification. Although news photography emerged in the early 20th century, it was merely decorative in limited illustrated magazines, with content mostly focusing on the weddings, funerals, and official gatherings of the elite, or at most, the activities of political figures and the ribbon-cutting ceremonies of a few projects. This content fell far short of the political and informational requirements of news. It wasn't until the 1930s that large-scale news photography formally took the stage of Chinese history. The start of the 1937 Japanese invasion of China further pushed Chinese news photography to its zenith. That was the youth of Chinese news photography, where outstanding photojournalists like Huang Ying, Wang Xiaoting, Wei Shouchong, Sha Fei, Shi Shaohua, and Fang Dazeng emerged.
The 1949 revolution brought significant changes to Chinese news photography. Highly politicized ideology gradually tightened its control over the media, transforming news into one-way political propaganda, with its objective informational characteristics largely disappearing. This shift occurred almost simultaneously across both sides of the Taiwan Strait, though to varying degrees. The Cultural Revolution of 1966 on the mainland completely eradicated news photography. News became a tool of political violence, characterized by the arbitrary distortion of objective facts and the of information. In the later years of the Cultural Revolution, with frequent changes in the political landscape, the practice of cutting and pasting news photos and replacing their content had become commonplace and unremarkable. During this period, people could hardly see any authentic social life in news photos—the inevitable natural disasters and social issues on the Chinese mainland were absent, replaced only by smiling faces and scenes of devoted study, meetings, and labor production.
After the decade-long nightmare finally ended, a group of news workers led by Jiang Qisheng of Xinhua News Agency began to "rectify the chaos" by reviewing the past state of news photography, reemphasizing its authenticity and other theoretical issues, and calling for the return of its intrinsic value. However, changing long-standing habits could not be achieved through slogans and a few theoretical seminars alone; it required practical breakthroughs. During this time, Hu Wu Gong's news photo "At the Moment of Flood" broke the awkward situation of "listening to the bell but not seeing the caravan." While photographing the rescue efforts during a flood in southern Shaanxi's Ankang, Hu captured the genuine, dramatic moments of people fighting against the ruthless forces of nature. Unlike the stereotypical "high, grand, and all-encompassing" portrayal of news photos, his image focused on the perilous rescue efforts, showcasing humanity's struggle against nature. Through objective, momentary captures, he shattered the dishonest attitude of news photography, which had long been about arranging scenes and avoiding difficulties, and instead presented the conflict, danger, and will of those on the scene.
However, Hu Wu Gong was fully aware of the complexities. He said, "As a carrier of social information, news photography is both a means and an end, with its own internal laws. It should provide a three-dimensional, holographic record and reflection of new developments in social life." And, "The fundamental function of news photography is to capture, reproduce, and disseminate the material forms—fact forms—presented in specific times and spaces. The authenticity of news photography lies in facts and their judgment. In news photography, facts are external and visible, while judgment is intuitive and latent. The interplay between visible facts and latent judgment constitutes the principle of authenticity in news photography." These words demonstrate that Hu Wu Gong had a deeply accurate and forward-thinking understanding of the direction of news photography during the era of ideological liberation. He emphasized the informational nature of news but also recognized the underlying stance and value orientation.
Hu Wu Gong's words and actions on news photography made an irreplaceable contribution to "rectifying the chaos" in the disheveled state of news photography at the beginning of the new era. Hu Wu Gong and his friends in the Shaanxi Group used news photography as a starting point to actively advocate for an image revolution. Although they repeatedly employed various slogans and methodologies—such as realism, structuralism, and phenomenological semiotics—to reinforce their voices, beneath these surface-level discourses, we see that they a humanitarian photographic stance and a positive orientation toward reflecting social reality. Most of the Shaanxi Group's images were precisely aimed at the realities of life from the beginning. Their lenses primarily captured the myriad scenes of Shaanxi's Guanzhong Plain and the Loess Plateau, with a largely documentary approach. At the time, the strong salonist trends and inclinations within the photography circle also influenced them, but their lived experiences in grassroots settings and the constrained conditions of photography compelled them to focus on ordinary, humble life. Thus, their images stood in stark contrast to the mainstream "main theme" and "glorious snow and night" paradigms of the era. Such a situation was extremely rare in contemporary Chinese photography, representing a resilient and powerful marginal voice outside the dominant ideological framework. It was a resurgence of realism, upholding the concern for China's modern societal transformation after the ideological enlightenment period of the Beijing April Photography Association.
Another characteristic of the Shaanxi Group was their strategic approach to society. From the beginning, they actively used media dissemination and theoretical discourse strategies to expand their influence and assert their voice. They proactively established relationships with various media outlets to publish their works. While photographing, they actively wrote articles, seeking theoretical justification for their creative practices. They often acted independently but collectively when necessary. In their external stance and discourse, they maintained a high degree of unity, even amidst intense internal conflicts. Some individuals in the group occasionally exhibited what modern viewers might deem overly theatrical behavior, but this was actually a survival strategy and a necessary choice, as they were on the fringes. Their advocacy, practices, and operations formed a complex yet dazzling landscape in Chinese photography between the 1980s and 1990s.
Today, as a collective, the Shaanxi Group has dispersed. However, their focus on reality, emphasis on the documentary nature of images, and commitment to a humanitarian photographic stance have deeply influenced subsequent photographers. Mr. Hu Wu Gong has now compiled his words from the past two decades into a book, both organizing his own thoughts and reflecting on the tortuous journey of Chinese news and documentary photography over the past twenty years from a personal perspective. In this sense, Hu Wu Gong's "The Chinese Photographic Revolution—A Journey of Contemporary News and Documentary Photography" is an important historical record of China's image culture since the reform and opening-up and the history of ideological liberation in the new era. It holds significance for both our present and future and is a text worth reading.