Biography of Chen Yifei - A Visual Life

Author: Yang Changxun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Chen Yifei's 59-year life journey was almost inseparable from painting. In his last decade, his life also became closely linked with film, or to say, he was an important identity as a director. This book provides a detailed account of Chen Yifei's life, and through the recollections of his close friends and people from various fields, it allows us to recognize the Chen Yifei we know from different perspectives. Writing is a personal matter, but photography must engage with the world. No matter how much it changes, the camera cannot alter its nature as a tool—a weapon. It is the least extreme form of violence. Photography is a painful thing; I always feel I am harming, disturbing the world. Especially in Asia south of Yunnan, in societies that believe in Buddha, I can never forget the fleeting look of alarm and worry about an unknown fate in people's expressions when I pressed the shutter. The free world was destroyed. Often, my actions were like those of a thief or an invader. This, of course, can be explained within the moral system of modernism. But that was a world that completely did not know what explanation was, a world that fundamentally did not need explanation. If images are harm, then my words can be considered a confession.—Yujian
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