Stories of humanity advised by a Chinese photographer’s lens

BEIJING – When Hu Wugong picked up a borrowed digicam in 1967, he didn’t gaze upon grand landscapes or revolutionary scenes. Instead, he turned inward — to the small world of his mother and father and sister. These early pictures, easy and heartwarming, contained the seeds of a philosophy that will form his life: the essence of images lies in individuals.

In the Nineteen Eighties, as China entered an period of reform and opening-up, Hu immersed himself within the villages and cities of his native Shaanxi province. His lens captured festivals shrouded in incense, funerals woven with sorrow and ritual, and weddings the place cussed traditions collided with fashionable ambitions. “I don’t study folklore,” he as soon as stated. “I study the cultural psychology of specific groups as reflected in folklore.”

This delicate distinction marks him as greater than only a recordkeeper of folklore. His work is rarely nostalgic, neither is it merely a document of fading customs. Rather, it’s a vital realism — an try to grasp how historical past and alter are printed on the faces and rituals of bizarre individuals. In the mid-Nineteen Eighties, Hu discovered like-minded people in a free group of Shaanxi photographers — together with Hou Dengke, Li Shaotong, Shi Baoxiu, Pan Ke, Jiao Jingquan, Qiu Xiaoming and Li Shengli. Collectively, they grew to become generally known as the “Shaanxi School”, a motion of image-makers that rejected fabrication and affectation, embracing actuality itself as a profound supply of metaphor.

Their credo was easy: oppose falsehood, reject manipulation and concentrate on human nature. The group later grew to become influential, although critics accused them of being conservative and overly clinging to documentary images orthodoxy. Hu retorted, “Just because we don’t engage in contemporary art doesn’t mean we’re conservative. Our weaknesses lie in our aesthetic and philosophical foundations, not our convictions.”

For Hu, the problem stays methods to preserve the relevance of images amid shifting aesthetics and modern technological change. Recently, when requested in regards to the introduction of recent know-how, he didn’t dismiss it. “The emergence of technology such as smartphones and artificial intelligence is humanity’s most dazzling epoch-making achievement in the 21st century,” he stated. “They are more than just a technology or a tool; AI, in particular, has the potential to develop into a species, propelling the Earth into a post-human era.”

Mr Hu attends a documentary images salon in Xi’an, Shaanxi, on Sept 7. PHOTO: CHINA DAILY

However, he insists that AI can’t substitute the witness of the digicam. “From a temporal perspective, AI resurrects history, while photography solidifies reality. At least for now, the two are not interchangeable. Therefore, time and temporality are the dividing line between AI imaging and traditional photography.” He provides that the actual hazard is that AI may make photographers “lazy or timid, afraid to show their face, reduced to beggars who plagiarize others’ work”.

For Hu, the antidote lies in self-discipline. “Facing the challenge of AI, the only strategy is to train the photographer’s own eye,” he says. “The essence of photography is recording. Documentary photography can bear witness to both history and oneself. Facing life directly, putting people first, and revealing human nature — this is the true path.”

If the reforms of the Nineteen Eighties formed Hu’s early aesthetic, in addition they propelled Chinese documentary images onto a broader stage. He recollects the 1988 exhibition A Difficult Journey on the National Art Museum of China as a watershed second. “The rise of documentary photography is essentially a revival of realism, thanks to reform and opening-up and the emancipation of thought,” he stated. “Photographers have extended their lenses to encompass the vast and profound sea of humanity, society and nature, using the joys, sorrows, anger and happiness of countless individuals to showcase the rich emotions of humanity and the social landscape.”

However, Hu admits that some gaps nonetheless exist. “Because documentary photography in China started later than in Europe and the United States, there is still a significant gap in theory, practice and professionalism,” he stated. “The discourse on photography is not on China’s side, and many excellent works have not yet been widely disseminated. Chinese documentary photography still needs to work hard to have a broad global influence.”

He believes that this effort requires extra profound pondering somewhat than technical experience. “The key to the development of documentary photography in China lies not in technology, but in liberating thought, shifting perspectives and breaking down the stigmas surrounding photography and culture,” he famous. “Photographers must possess independent thought and humanistic artistic concepts, facing reality head-on without evasion or shrinking back.”

Although Hu has many titles in educational and photographic circles, he merely refers to himself as a photographer. His work persistently examines and captures life by impartial reflection. Only when artwork is imbued with a considerate high quality can or not it’s imbued with soul.

Over 70 years outdated, Hu nonetheless captures life with an uneasy seriousness. His pictures — funerals in dusty courtyards, staff resting beneath neon lights, aged males gazing on the ruins of historical shrines — should not nostalgia however expressions of continuity. They remind us that historical past, regardless of how swiftly it passes, leaves its mark. In an age the place photographs may be reworked by code, Hu maintains a cussed and irreplaceable presence, insisting on turning his lens on life itself and urgent the shutter.

Huo Yan in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, contributed to this story.