"The photos you take on the street in Taikoo Li, Sanlitun may have been sold on paid websites."
A few days ago, a video about Sanlitun secretly filmed by blogger @Nea nina sent this Beijing street shooting center to a hot search. From the cosmic center of Beijing street photography to the high incidence of soft pornography, in recent years, the controversy over "Sanlitun street shooting" has intensified.
Behind the controversy of public opinion, the "old mages" who once carried long guns and short cannons to shoot in Sanlitun also left this street photography holy land one by one.
If you want to say that the place with the highest rate of hipsters in Beijing, Sanlitun ranks second, no place dares to call it the first. In Beijing, which has little to do with the "fashion capital", Sanlitun is an exception: in the winter, the coats of the major fashion brands are worn, and in the summer, everyone wears suspenders, and hats and sunglasses are the most common fashion items here.
Sanlitun, where young hipsters gathered, then became a gathering place for photographers, and the main force was a group of retired bosses. Most of them carried expensive long guns and short cannons, wore vests that symbolized the status of the photography world, and crouched at the entrance of the Southern District of Sanlitun, waiting for the fashionable and beautiful girls to enter their cameras.
On social media, they have a more widely known title – "Old Mage".
Long guns and short cannons were standard for old mages
Lao Xu is one of them, living in Tianjin, who used to carry his camera to Sanlitun every weekend to take a street photo. At the beginning, I went to Sanlitun to take pictures not deliberately, but to complete the "character theme" shooting assignment assigned by the photography class. The first time I went to Sanlitun to take pictures, Lao Xu was uncomfortable and even embarrassed to hold up his camera, "especially when others realized that you were filming him, the feeling of eye contact in the camera was really embarrassing."
In Lao Xu's view, the reason why Sanlitun can become the most famous street photography place in Beijing is the result of the mutual benefit of photographers and hipsters and models. "It was really a default rule in the beginning, fashion gurus need to show themselves, photographers need to get their work or simply pursue beauty."
Lao Lin, who lives near Sanlitun, regards going to Sanlitun to take pictures as a pastime after tea and dinner, "just like walking birds." In the first few months of taking pictures in Sanlitun, Lao Lin always felt a kind of "joy of discovering beauty".
(Source "Old Car Photography")
"In fact, this kind of photography in Sanlitun is not quite the same as ordinary street photography." Most street photography is too deliberate and is a 'production model'. Before starting the shoot, the photographer of the street photography probably knows what the work will look like, and the makeup and outfit of the model are arranged. But shooting in Sanlitun is more like a kind of discovery, you have to find something worth photographing, it may be fashionable, beautiful, or it may be special. ”
In addition to the "old mages" who were over fifty years old, Sanlitun also gathered a group of younger and more professional photographers. Unlike the old mages who like to focus on beautiful girls, the 39-year-old Ono prefers "interesting people and things".
"The camera I used at that time was the Laika M9, which also took pictures of the state of people's lives, and would not use telephoto specifically to take pictures of beautiful women who highlighted the figure and appearance of others." Strictly speaking, it's not a documentary, it's just an exercise in photography. ”
Ono has been shooting in Sanlitun Street since 2013, and the reason he chose this place as a street shooting location is simple: the flow of people is large, and the characters and stories that can be photographed are very rich, which can help him present the real Beijing.
"At that time (around 2013), the photographer structure of Sanlitun was not as rich as it is now, basically some 'old mages', and photography was a hobby they cultivated after they retired and had nothing to do. Unlike other cities, Beijing has many places to take pictures and look good, and the places where young people who can take pictures of good looks and others are not very good at scolding you are basically left in Sanlitun. ”
Ono mentioned that the "old mages" of Sanlitun have their own circle, such as "size 2006", "Imperial City Root Five Masters" and "Jingcheng Laotian" such well-known "old mages" are familiar faces in the circle, but it is difficult for independent photographers like Ono to blend into this circle.
"They are older, they heard that they go every day, and the hard disks at home are too many to fit in a cabinet, and I don't know if they can go back and look at the pictures."
Before "candid photography" became the label of Sanlitun Street Shooting, the risk of taking pictures here had already been revealed.
The dispute first comes from the protection of "portrait rights" and "privacy rights". As Ono said, around 2013, you hold up your camera and take pictures in Sanlitun and few people will be disgusted. Few subjects care about their portrait rights, and photographers can earn a lot of money by selling them to magazines.
However, when people gradually realized the importance of "portrait rights" and "privacy rights", the legitimacy of street photography began to be questioned.
"There are a lot of details behind the street shoot that have never been discussed, such as who guarantees the privacy of the other person's portrait, because the person being photographed never knows what the person who photographed you is doing and what he will do with your photo." Old Xu had long been troubled by this problem.
According to Ono, due to the problem of portrait rights, magazines are rarely willing to buy street photography works of "old mages" now. They began to sell their photos on Weibo, and the price of a set of pictures ranged from tens to thousands of dollars.
"If the subject is not aware of it, it is illegal to sell a photo. This is certainly a way to make money, but it is certainly not a good way. ”
Conflicts arising from taking pictures have also become more and more frequent, and in 2018, a Douyu anchor with 700,000 fans decided to treat him in the same way because he was not satisfied with the behavior of the "old mage" of Sanlitun. He took the camera to shoot an "old mage", and after being stopped, he began to provoke the boss, and eventually the two had a serious physical conflict, and the anchor was kicked by the boss. Lao Xu also mentioned that he had a friend who almost smashed the camera because he was chasing others to take pictures.
On the other hand, many photographers under the banner of "Sanlitun Street Shooting" began to play the edge ball in their works. Taking the size of sanlitun's well-known "old mage" as an example, the most frequent body parts in his photos are the girl's hips and thighs. Some people joked that "being photographed in Sanlitun is not necessarily because you are fashionable and beautiful, or it may be that your underwear traces are too eye-catching."
(Source @ size 2006)
The phenomenon of rubbing the side ball has become more and more intense, and "secret shooting" is gradually destroying the reputation of Sanlitun Street Shooting. Blogger @Nea introduced in the video that many sneaky photographers specially pick girls who are dressed sexily to shoot, especially when they get off the bike, take the elevator, and take the legs of the stilt erlang to secretly take photos.
After the sneak peekers will sell these photos to some so-called street photography websites, people who want to see them need to spend hundreds of yuan to open a membership, and a website even hit a "lifetime VIP" price of 5666 yuan.
Blogger @SerenaHottie introduced that these sneaky photographers do not belong to professional photographers, nor do they belong to the circle of "old mages", they are often relatively young, the equipment used is not expensive, and often use mobile phones to take pictures, "just to facilitate the secret shooting of the bottom of the skirt."
She mentioned in the video that she once went shopping with a friend in Sanlitun and was targeted by a stocky, bespectacled sneak peek because she was dressed coolly and sexily. After several times she went to Taikoo Li to eat and go shopping, this sneak peek would follow behind her, holding a mobile phone and taking pictures all the time, "I didn't dare to go out of a crowded place, nor did I dare to go home, every time I had to let my boyfriend pick me up, make a gesture to call his mobile phone, he slipped away." 」
"Candid shooting" is not the only controversy faced by Sanlitun Street Auction. Ono mentioned that a relatively professional organization like "P1 Street Shoot", after taking photos of beautiful girls, will add their WeChat in the name of "collecting information on hipsters", and then pass on the photos taken to them.
(Source@P1 Street Auction)
However, for girls who are photographed by chance, this is not necessarily an opportunity for "white prostitution" photos, and may even fall into a scam. In a 2017 report in the Beijing News, the reporter secretly visited a Beijing cultural media company and found that its staff took pictures of girls dressed in fashion every day in Sanlitun and left each other's contact information, and then took the fee step by step on the grounds of recruiting part-time models.
"These 20-year-old girls who don't know the truth, still think that they have encountered a scout, have actually become the target of this gray industry, and they use layers of words to cooperate and create all kinds of mandatory secret consumption." After being defrauded of tens of thousands of yuan, one of the parties wrote a long article to expose the matter online.
Under the encirclement and suppression of all kinds of negative public opinion, shooting in Sanlitun Street has become more and more dangerous.
Old Lin has been shooting on Sanlitun Street for three years, but lately he has rarely taken pictures again. The old friends in the photography group also left the group one by one. The "old mages" who have been entrenched in Sanlitun for many years are gradually leaving.
Young and beautiful girls hate secret filming, and the "photographers" who "shoot on the serious street" in Sanlitun are also bitter and negative public opinion for a long time.
Lao Lin said that as long as you hold up the camera in Sanlitun, you are no longer a photography enthusiast, let alone an old artist, but will be labeled as a unified label - the old sex ghost.
"Before, there was a group friend who was scolded on the Internet for filming a girl, and was also fleshed, and after that I was a little afraid to go." Now sanlitun street shooting has not been able to bring everyone happiness and excitement, before taking a satisfactory photo can be happy for several days, now such a trend has disappeared. ”
Lao Xu remembers that one of his classmates reported to his wife before going to Sanlitun Street to shoot, and his wife was very dissatisfied and felt that he was "old and improper".
Later, he and his wife repeatedly promised that they would go to Beijing to shoot only men, and absolutely not women, and his wife would let them go. However, he also went this time, because if he only took pictures of boys in Sanlitun, he could not take a few photos at a time, and there were too few men dressed well and fashionable. ”
In Lao Lin's view, the style and theme of Sanlitun Street shooting have become more and more solidified. He once took a picture of a boy who painted eyeshadow in Sanlitun, and when he excitedly showed the picture to a friend, the friend asked him with a look of disgust: "You don't shoot a good-looking girl, why do you shoot this?" ”
Lao Lin and his friends finally had a big fight, "I think some 'old mages' are too narrow-minded, so it is no wonder that others think that we only shoot beautiful women, and our hearts are not right."
Another "old mage" we contacted who had taken pictures in Sanlitun was very unhappy with the negative media coverage of Sanlitun street photography in recent years. After politely rejecting our interview, he sent several messages in quick succession, strongly recommending that we cancel the report:
Sanlitun Street Auction is a cultural phenomenon here, and the existence is both reasonable. There is no need to praise or disparage, you can change the angle, starting from the positive role played by Sanlitun Street Photography in enhancing the popularity and influence of Sanlitun.
In the past, the media was critical and derogatory about Sanlitun Street Shooting, and as one of them, I hated such reports. More positive implications should be tapped into!
There are national famous photography masters, there are also photography enthusiasts, as well as people who take pictures of themselves with mobile phones, what level of people have, who is the "old mage"?
Ono left Sanlitun even earlier, and since 2017, he has rarely gone to this well-known fashion district to shoot. An important reason for this is that his own photographic interests have changed: from street photography to more active creation.
"Now when you go to Sanlitun, you are going to eat and go shopping, and if you really want to take pictures, you will choose a park or a hutong in Beijing."
Resources:
Beijing News: Sanlitun Street shooting routine: use star dreams to set your money
Interview: Echo & PP
Source: Nana
Written & Edited by: Echo
Some of the image sources come from Visual China
The rest of the source network, the copyright belongs to the original author