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Yu Jia
The mysterious cultural relics he photographed make people dream back to the ancient Shu kingdom
Bashu Chronicle Editorial Department Fang Zhitong
Yu Jia, 45, from Guanghan City, Sichuan Province. He is a member of the China Photographic Copyright Association, a member of the Sichuan Photographers Association, the chairman of the Guanghan Photographers Association, the editor-in-chief of Guanghan Gastronomic Tourism Geography, the chief planner and execution of "Shadow City - Liang Sicheng and the Guanghan in 1939/1941", and a special photographer for the new round of archaeological excavations at the Sanxingdui site sacrifice pit. For more than seven months, he has taken more than 80,000 pictures at the archaeological excavation site, using artistic techniques to photograph many historical moments in the process of excavation and excavation of cultural relics.
Before the shooting, Yu Jia and Tang Fei, president of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, determined the shooting method, and to use artistic techniques to present the cultural relics at the excavation site of the Sanxingdui site. Just entering the archaeological work module, Yu Jia did not have much feeling, as a professional photographer, he can maintain calm and efficient work in any kind of unfamiliar occasion. Before going down the pit, Yu Jia had countless ideas about the scene under the pit, but when his feet landed on the land thousands of years ago, the shock that came to his face made Yu Jia truly feel that the pit on the pit was completely two worlds. Although most of the cultural relics half-hidden in the soil are mutilated, the special ornamentation and exquisite shape of the cultural relics make them regain their lives when they are excavated, showing a different style. "That moment is so powerful that you can even imagine the magnificent sacrifice scene 3,000 years ago, where the ancient Shu ancestors in full costume followed the king to complete the pre-sacrifice ceremony in tragic music." After the ceremony, the sacrificial officials took the prepared sea shells, ivory, gold, jade, bronze masks, kneeling figures and other sacrifices, smashed, smashed, and then thrown into the pit and burned under the attention of tens of millions of ancestors; after the theosophical wizard danced with the mask, the sacrifice was quickly buried..." Yu Jia recalled the experience of going down to the pit for the first time, and still felt like a dream.
Years of fate with Sanxingdui
Yu Jia's first close encounter with Sanxingdui was on October 26, 1997, when the Sanxingdui Museum was officially completed and opened. "It was very lively, and a lot of people came, three floors inside and three floors outside, densely packed," Yu Jia said. At that time, Yu Jiagang worked for a year, and the teacher who taught him to host the broadcast was invited to be the host of the opening ceremony of the Sanxingdui Museum, so he also went. "At that time, I didn't understand, I didn't have much feelings about Sanxingdui, I just thought it was strange." Yu Jia frankly said that as a young man, he did not have an obvious desire to explore these figurative excavated cultural relics.
But that opportunity not only allowed Yu Jia to witness the beginning of the history of sanxingdui museum, but also opened the prelude to his 24-year relationship with sanxingdui.
In 2002, Yu Jia became a newspaper reporter, and in his spare time he taught himself photography, and because of his talent for shooting, he was introduced to Sanxingdui to shoot news pictures. Between work, Yu Jia has a lot of time to stop and observe the cultural relics of Sanxingdui. At first, the cultural relics only appeared as the prospect of the news map, but in one contact after another, he gradually liked the masks unearthed at the Sanxingdui site; it was for this reason that he began to focus on the shooting of the Sanxingdui cultural relics, and he wanted to take pictures of the stories behind the cultural relics. Yu Jia believes that cultural relics are independent works of art, and there is an equal dialogue relationship between photographers and cultural relics. The role of photographers has never been that of the leader, but of the discoverer, who uses the camera to discover the beauty and value of artifacts. The pilgrimage form of the sacred bird hollowed out in the Sanxingdui cultural relics, the fish and arrow bird ornament carved on the scepter, the solemn and symmetrical structure of the gold mask, and the bronze sacred tree and dragon coiling shape all gave him beauty inspiration and had a profound impact on his subsequent shooting style.
Gold mask excavated from no. 5 sacrifice pit at Sanxingdui site (Courtesy of Yun He Vision)
At the "Retracing the Silk Road" event held on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of sanxingdui Museum, Yu Jia was invited to act as a special photographer. The activity spanned Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, ending in Ruili, Yunnan, along the way more than 1300 kilometers, they observed the geography, ethnic customs, antiquities and monuments of more than a dozen cities. That entourage not only made Yu Jia realize how vast the radiation of Sanxingdui as the highland of ancient southwest civilization was to the bronze culture in the southwest region, but also let him know his best friend, Xiao Xianjin, the first director of the Sanxingdui Museum. In the 1990s, Xiao Advanced advocated the construction of the Sanxingdui Museum, borrowed more than 20 million yuan in debt, and invested in the construction of the museum without hesitation, and his spirit of daring to be the first in the world and the feelings of paying for Sanxingdui deeply touched Yu Jia.
From this incident, Yu Jia understood the power of "feelings"; in this world, the initiatives to change the world are often promoted by "feelings" people who do not seek returns. This activity sublimated Yu Jia's feelings for Sanxingdui, and his shooting focus also shifted from focusing on the appearance characteristics of cultural relics to focusing on the humanistic connotation of cultural relics.
As a native of Guanghan, Yu Jia has a natural "homeland feeling", and he sees the record of Sanxingdui as a kind of historical story re-searching and a continuation of urban culture. In 2014, his work was first adopted by China National Geographic and subsequently published by other major media outlets. Since then, more people have known Sanxingdui through Yu Jia's photos and liked Sanxingdui.
A photography journey that is getting better
From December 2019 to May 2020, Sanxingdui discovered six new sacrificial pits. In September 2020, a new round of archaeological excavations in Sanxingdui began. This excavation provides important information for a complete understanding of the ritual culture, religious thought and cosmic concepts of the ancient Shu kingdom 3,000 years ago. At the beginning of 2021, Yu Jia received a shooting invitation from the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, when the cultural relics of the 6 sacrificial pits had been exposed to the ground one after another, and a photographer was needed to record the artistic side of the excavated cultural relics in this major excavation event, and Yu Jia became the only third-party photographer invited to enter the Sanxingdui archaeological work module to photograph the excavated cultural relics.
On the 6 newly discovered sacrificial pits, archaeological work modules were set up, and Yu Jia stood on the pits and paced back and forth, not knowing how to best present cultural relics. "I'm a perfectionist, and I want to make the best work, but I don't know if I can light up in the pit or if I can put on a tripod, so I'm afraid of difficulties." Although Yu Jia has photographed sanxingdui cultural relics, those are all works of art that have been excavated and restored, and the shooting is carried out in a safe area, maintaining a certain distance from the cultural relics. Archaeologists wear protective clothing in the pit to work finely, first with shovels, brushes to clean the soil, and then use a variety of high-tech instruments for detection and analysis, "I don't know if my movement will affect the work of archaeologists, so I have not been able to let go." Yu Jia recalled the experience of going down the pit for the first time on March 4, 2021, and she could still feel the tension at that time.
Xu Feihong, the director of the No. 3 sacrifice pit, saw Yu Jia's concerns, took the initiative to tell Yu Jia the focus of the archaeological work under the pit, gave him a clear relationship layer of cultural relics, taught him how to protect cultural relics during filming, plus Lei Yu, director of the Sanxingdui Site Workstation of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, has always encouraged him to let go and shoot, and Yu Jia slowly photographed his own characteristics after going to the pit.
At the beginning, Yu Jia and several other reporters from the media were shooting together, and everyone had no experience and were groping. Yu Jia took out the photos she had just taken to show the author, and frankly said that at that time, she could only use the light source on her head, and the works taken were flat, dull, and had no texture. While photographing the fusion of a lump of gold masks from the No. 5 sacrifice pit, Yu Jia found a bit of feeling, and he combined the archaeologists and cultural relics on the scene to shoot. "The information content of the photo is very large, which shows the joy of discovering the value of the great and discovering the new material!" Tang Fei, president of the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, praised. While photographing the round mouth fangzun unearthed in the No. 3 sacrifice pit, Yu Jia has integrated her own aesthetic concept and begun to highlight the details, showing the most valuable side of the cultural relics. "The animal face pattern and bird ornamentation on the Fang Zun are all unique symbols of Sanxingdui cultural relics, and no matter how I shoot them, this work bears the mark of Sanxingdui", he always seems to be unfinished when talking about these experiences.
Round mouth Fangzun excavated from No. 3 sacrifice pit of Sanxingdui site (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Research Institute of Sichuan Provincial Research Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, photo by Yu Jia)
With the help of the light scanned by the cultural relics of the archaeological station, paying attention to the contrast between light and shade and virtual reality when shooting, Yu Jia's shooting gradually entered a better state, and he photographed the "sense of atmosphere" in the archaeological community. A photo of a combination of square mouth fangzun excavated from no. 3 sacrifice pit, bronze mask and ivory, Yu Jia took an instant shocking beauty. The square mouth square statue is perpendicular to the pit surface, and the bronze mask is against the square mouth square statue on the side, and they account for half of the area of the photo on the left and right, and the chiaroscuro contrast produces a three-dimensional beauty. The bronze mask's left eye is hidden in the shadows, the right eye is obscured by dirt, and the protruding eyeball is looming, highlighting the smoothness of its facial contours when shooting. Although this photo is composed of a combination of square mouth, bronze mask and ivory, the viewer's eyes will only stay on the bronze mask, even if the whole face cannot be seen clearly, it also shows the temperament similar to the sculpture "Contemplator", quiet and self-consistent. This is the charm of dialogue with cultural relics across time and space, after shooting some similar styles of works, Yu Jia also determined the shooting direction - the mystery of Sanxingdui.
Fangzun and bronze mask in the sacrifice pit No. 3 of Sanxingdui Site (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Research Institute of Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, photo by Yu Jia)
During the filming, Yu Jia also experienced moments of panic. Before the bronze mask of the No. 3 sacrifice pit was photographed, the large mask had been exposed to the ground for more than 3 months, but the mask was pressed with ivory and other cultural relics, and there was no exact time when it could be extracted. On June 23, 2021, Yu Jia received a call from Xu Feihong, the chief of the No. 3 sacrifice pit, informing him that the large mask was about to be extracted, and that Yu Jia was still working 10 kilometers away from Sanxingdui. He was nervous about the news, he knew that photography was a regrettable art, but he was still afraid of missing this rare opportunity. In order not to regret it, he immediately drove to the Sanxingdui Museum after taking the camera, and along the way, in addition to recognizing the way, his mind was full of shots and apertures needed for shooting. As soon as he got out of the car, he immediately put on his protective suit and entered the archaeological work module, fortunately catching the 3:30 p.m. extraction shooting.
On June 23, 2021, the bronze mask extraction of the No. 3 sacrifice pit at the Sanxingdui site was extracted (Courtesy of Sanxingdui Research Institute of Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, photo by Yu Jia)
Everything was ready, Yu Jia lay down next to the bronze mask with excitement, and the bronze mask with its face facing the pit slowly revealed its dignity with the help of the elevator. At this time, archaeologists were worried that if the bronze mask was accidentally dropped, it might hit Yu Jia. "I believe in your technology, and if it hits me, it's my honor, and it's worth it," Yu Jia quipped. "30 centimeters, 50 centimeters, 1 meter, 1.5 meters..." Yu Jia silently estimated the height of the bronze mask out of the pit in her heart. Just when the bronze mask was mentioned to the height of ordinary people, Ren Junfeng, a cultural security officer, just looked up at the face of the bronze mask, and he was observing whether the cultural relics on the large mask would fall. With a "click", Yu Jia fixed this "gaze spanning more than 3,000 years", and there was this photo full of "future history". After the extraction work was over, Yu Jia was relieved, but her heart was hard to hide her excitement. "If I miss this shoot, I will regret it for the rest of my life," says Yu Jia, who sees the group as a very important work in his photography experience. This photo also appeared in the news of major media due to the excavation of the 3-8 sacrifice pit.
Artistic creation across time and space
Photography is not difficult, but it is the most difficult to capture the instant beauty of light and shadow objects, which requires time and place
Photography is not difficult, but it is the most difficult to capture the instant beauty of light and shadow objects, which requires the right time and place. This is not a movie that has a chance to do it again; it is not a documentary that records the most real moment; this beauty is also different from the scenery in nature, and there is no repetition of the flowers of the years. If you want to shoot well, you not only need the tacit cooperation between the photographer and the archaeologists on the spot, but also the respect and understanding of each other's work.
Photography differs from other artistic creations such as film, music, painting, calligraphy, etc., which are based on the artist's own experience, and the work carries its own unique personality and label. The shooting of Sanxingdui cultural relics relies entirely on the photographer's control of light and shadow and keen observation. How to restore the scene at that time, how to leave the public with room for imagination, and how to add too many subjective ideas are all problems that he needs to think about when creating.
When it comes to artistically photographing cultural relics, Yu Jia has her own ideas. The characteristics of the cultural relics exhibited in the museum are displayed one by one and placed in a glass cabinet; while the Sanxingdui cultural relics are different from the excavated cultural relics of other dynasties, there are verifiable documents, and there is a sense of substitution when appreciating. The public does not understand the use of the cultural relics exhibited by Sanxingdui, and the imagination they construct is based on the existing world as a reference, which will be difficult to interpret culture, so he positioned this shooting as archaeology for the public, only publishing the story of the cultural relics in the pit, showing the scene of zero-distance contact with the ancients.
Whether it is artistic creation or artistic innovation, it is based on a certain era background. Photographing cultural relics is not a precedent, but artistic photography of excavation sites without documentation is rare in China and even the world. Yu Jia's artistic innovations have become a pioneer in the integration of interdisciplinary art.
"Shooting the closest scene to the original in the pit, placing the cultural relics in their unique cultural background, with references, the audience will be more concrete when interpreting; such works can help people who do not have Sanxingdui knowledge or lack artistic aesthetics to discover its beauty to the greatest extent, which is also an opportunity to enhance the aesthetics of the public." In addition, photography can reconstruct the cultural context, and artistic expression gives people a space for full imagination and facilitates people's secondary creation. Due to the special fault culture form of Sanxingdui, photos carry more important cultural functions, and when history cannot be reproduced, we can also imagine the civilization and prosperity of an era with the help of photos," Yu Jia briefly talked to reporters about the role of artistically photographing Sanxingdui cultural relics.
Yu Jia's works allow us to broaden our understanding of beauty and understand the diversity of beauty. Sanxingdui cultural relics, the ground is beautiful, the underground is also beautiful; complete is beautiful, mutilated is also beautiful; existence is beauty, disappearance is also beauty; facts are beautiful, fantasy is also beautiful; history is beauty, the present is also beautiful. Cultural relics buried in the dirt may be able to see the light of day, but the highly prosperous ancient civilization cannot be reproduced. Although the casting technology of Sanxingdui cultural relics has been lost, the culture has fallen lonely, and the times have changed, artistic innovation can break all this and blossom a brilliant flower of civilization in the ancient dust, splendid for the next 3,000 years.