My Life Notes: Name and Body Follow

Author: Ye Zhaoyan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2007-01-01
Features: In 1974, after graduating from high school, I received a Soviet Zorki 4 camera. It was found by my mother's friend in a second-hand store in Shanghai for 204 yuan. At the time, it was already a very decent camera. The lens was F2, and it was said to be completely similar to a certain model from the German Leica. My cousin Sanwu told me that this camera was basically top-of-the-line in the 1950s because its core technology and raw materials were all made use of as war reparations from Germany's defeat. Looking at it today, it's not worth much. But at the time, I mean at the time, at least among the people around me, no one could come up with something more high-end. Those years were common with twin-lens reflex cameras, 120 format, with lenses only F3.5, and could only take 12 photos. Unlike my 135 camera, which could take 36 photos each time, and because the lens was larger, even if the lighting wasn't great, the image quality was decent. My cousin was a photography enthusiast, especially good at portrait photography, and I learned basic shooting and printing and enlarging techniques from him. Family members and people around me became my models. Perhaps I never really took a good photo, but for a while, I often heard people praise my work. My grandfather once praised, "This photo is good, I'll put it in my album." Unconsciously, I spent a lot of time on photography. There was a photography and picture society in Nanjing's Xinjiekou, where the enlarging paper was sold by the pound, and you could buy it back and enlarge photos yourself, which was relatively cheaper. I made my own enlarger and light machine, prepared the solution in a basin, and hid in the darkroom, staying there all night. I can't remember how many photos I took, compared to today, it's nothing, but at the time, working hard and handing out thick stacks of photos was quite intimidating. I quickly became a little worker, and the reputation of being a photographer spread, and often people asked me to take photos. I invested my limited time and money into the endless world of photography. It sounds absurd, but back then, I took so many photos, and now it's very difficult to find traces of that time, except for some evidence left in my parents' photo albums, most of the photos are nowhere to be found. You took a photo for someone, developed and enlarged it, gave the photo to them, and that was it, it was over. On September 9, 1976, in Nanjing's Xiuqiu Park, I was taking photos for the son of an electrician. The child was only three or four years old. The loudspeaker announced that important news would be broadcast, asking everyone to wait patiently. We took photos while waiting. Finally, we finished shooting the roll of film and came out of the woods, where we heard the news that Chairman Mao had passed away. At the time, we didn't think this would have any impact on our future. Everything happened unconsciously, the era of photography suddenly ended, and I gradually forgot this skill, starting to attend night school to study mechanical drawing and advanced mathematics. Like photography, I still didn't master them well. Soon after, the college entrance exams were resumed, and I went to the exam hall in a rush, like everyone else. I failed the first time, but the second time, I passed and became a university student.