【Archive】Transcript of the seminar speech of "Four Notes of Fusheng - Zhou Guoxian Documentary Photography Exhibition"

On January 18, 2015, "Four Notes on Fusheng - Zhou Guoxian Documentary Photography Exhibition" was launched in the art exhibition space on the 4th floor of Wuhan Zall Bookstore (now Zall Art Museum). In the afternoon of the same day, at Zall Bookstore, the famous photography theory critic presided over the seminar "Four Notes of Fusheng - Zhou Guoxian Documentary Photography Exhibition", and 18 experts, scholars and photographers participated in the seminar.

At that time, two stenographers were invited to make a transcript of the speeches of various experts and scholars, which are now published here. Some things have changed now, but the insights of these experts and photographers still make them think.

Conference Theme: Rationality, Emotion and Aesthetics of Documentary Photography - Commenting on "Four Notes of Fusheng - Zhou Guoxian Documentary Photography Exhibition"

Meeting time: January 18, 2015 afternoon

Moderator: Ding Zunxin

Panelists (in order of speech): Jiang Beizhan, Dong Yumei, Dong Hongyou, Xie Guoan, Song Gangming, Shen Xiangsheng, Liu Yu, Zhou Bo, Huang Yihuang, Tian Fei, Hu Weiming, Fang Su, Peng Niansheng, Sun Wei, Zhang Gang, Yu Shengwen, Jia Xiaoxia, Jia Liancheng

Moderator (famous photography theory critic Ding Zunxin): Dear friends, today is a grand event, just at the beginning of the new year, the Spring Festival is coming again, we take this opportunity to get together together, we are all some old friends. Hubei Wuhan's photography elites and famous artists are here, so I feel very happy and a good opportunity. This seminar is to use Zhou Guoxian's exhibition to do a little theoretical article, the province still has a certain strength in theory, in recent years it is relatively not so active, there are three who have won the Academy Award, Song Gangming is this year, Huang Yihuang is last year, I am also last year, not to mention the books and albums.

Today we use Zhou Guoxian's exhibition to do a theoretical discussion, theoretical discussion is placed in the current state of documentary photography, documentary photography flourishing background, documentary photography is very prosperous, everyone does street photography, very popular, and the techniques are also very diversified, a variety of documentary methods, Zhou Guoxian is also one. He is closer to a feature report, and we will use this exhibition to make a little article. In addition, due to the large number of famous people today, each guest speaker should not exceed ten minutes. The first kick was difficult to kick, and the first to speak was Professor Jiang Beizhan to speak.

In addition to photography, theory, and documentary, some regional cultural studies, and some writers who came today, they also hope that they will publish more high opinions, and publish their high opinions on Zhou Guoxian's photography and Wuhan's documentary photography. In addition, I would like to explain that there were some observers, as well as five friends from Jingzhou, who came from afar to see this exhibition or to observe the seminar. Another point to be made special is that Jia Xiaoxia of the People's Photography Daily is a senior editor and came to the scene in person. You speak freely, express your opinions, and it is best if you have different opinions, and everyone can talk to each other. Our meeting is a seminar, not a grand meeting, and we cannot just say good things. Below is Professor Jiang Beizhan invited.

Jiang Beizhan (famous photographer, professor of Central China Normal University): To do photography theory, just now we recalled with some friends, about 30 years ago, we started in Xi'an, a photography institute in Xi'an, and then Xiamen, 85 years to now 30 years, retired for so many years, history is a little far away, today Teacher Ding called me the first to speak, can not push, if the talk is not thoughtful, I hope you can understand.

Teacher Ding has an outline, I chose the 11th topic, Teacher Ding wrote "Rationality, Emotion and Aesthetics of Documentary Photography", I changed two words slightly, changed "rationality" to "cognition", functionally speaking, it is three functions, and in terms of value, it is three values: one is the cognitive function, the second is the emotional function, and the third is the aesthetic function. I will talk about it in conjunction with Zhou Guoxian's "Four Notes on Floating Life".

About cognition or awareness. Documentary photography is a window for us to understand the world, society, and life, we have lived in Wuhan for many years, I began to live in Wuhan in 49, but I was still surprised when I saw these things presented by Zhou Guoxian, because there are some things I have never seen, such as "People on the Water". We have seen everything else, Biandan, Jiqing Street, and Laolifen, and if it weren't for Zhou Guoxian's photography, we wouldn't know this piece (people on the water). The biggest function of documentary photography is the cognitive function, through documentary photography, with a critical vision, critical attitude to reveal the deficiencies in life, and some deficiencies in the advance, in order to arouse the public, arouse the attention of the government, so as to promote social progress.

One of the biggest differences between documentary photography and other photography is that in addition to the picture, there must also be text. We can look at these words presented by Zhou Guoxian, and we know that documentary photography is as inseparable from text as news photography, and it should be a perfect combination of picture and text. After reading these words, you can know how much effort Zhou Guo has put in, whether it is an interview beforehand or an interview afterwards, and the subject communicates, blends, and becomes friends, it must be such a process, so that he can have so many things to write about.

With regard to words, I would like to make a point. I think some of the text can be further discussed. For example, "Water People", Zhou Guoxian took some effort, from his photo text can be seen, he selected Chinese New Year's Eve, Christmas Eve, Children's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival and other moments to go to the water people for interviews, this starting point is very good, but we feel that the combination of text and photos is a little regretful. Because if we don't look at the text, if we only look at the photos, we can't tell from the photos which day is Christmas, which day is Chinese New Year's Eve, which day is Children's Day. Of course, this may be a bit demanding for a documentary photographer, but since as a photographer, I think the picture should come first. Zhou Guoxian has already made tens of thousands of these films, and I estimate that it will be very hard if I want to continue shooting, but there is still room for further efforts in terms of the combination of text and photos.

About emotions. The reason why documentary photography can move people is emotion, it moves people's conscience, people's love, people's sense of justice, is to try to move others emotionally through the expression of pictures and words, the power of documentary photography is also in this place. The more successful ones since documentary photography are the Hope Project, and before the Hope Project, the Youth Love Foundation also did a lot of work, including filming TV, but it did not achieve the imaginary results, and Xie Hailong's Hope Project achieved this effect. After Xie Hailong arrived in Wuhan, I specially put his exhibition in the Chinese Division for a week, and many people left messages, at that time I wanted to go to the Chinese Division, I also think that a normal student should first look at Xie Hailong's exhibition, if you want to be a teacher, this should be a basic course. Zhou Guoxian also handled this aspect very well, many places are very humane, such as the flat dan on Hanzheng Street, a snowy day, there is a small snowman on the cargo bag, a scene like this, very humane, a flat dan when he is idle in the rearview mirror of a car with nail clippers to clamp his beard, this very heavy, depressing-looking set of photos reflects the joy of life, the hope of bian dan for life. It doesn't matter if you suffer, but you have to have hope. If there is no hope in life, if there is no dream, then this life may really not work.

About aesthetics. It turns out that every time we discuss the aesthetics of documentary photography, there are often some unclear places to discuss, and many people think that this can be called beauty? But aesthetics has a variety of forms of beauty. What we often encounter is the beauty in the scenery, everyone can accept it, feel that the beauty of the scenery and the beauty of portraits and the beauty of models are called beauty, where is the beauty of documentary photography? From the field of aesthetics, it has beauty, sublime, tragedy, comedy, funny, there are many classifications, and there are many classifications in tragedy, and the tragedies we see such as Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, or the white-haired girl, that is a kind of tragedy. In fact, there is also a kind of tragedy, that is, the tragedy of "almost ignoring" that Mr. Lu Xun said, the tragedy of many small people written by Lu Xun, the tragedy of fate and the times is the tragedy of almost ignorance, because in the years everyone is insensitive to many things in society, becoming more and more insensitive, as if it is commonplace, as if insensitive. Under the high-rise buildings, next to the beautiful bridge across the river, there are still so many people living in our city, whether as a common person or as a cultural person, it should attract our attention.

The cognition of documentary photography is the first, but his cognition is to mobilize emotions, stimulate people's sympathy, stimulate people's sense of justice, from an aesthetic point of view, not only is it an almost ignored tragedy, but I think it should have three levels: the first level is pleasing to the eye, the second level is pleasing to the heart, and the third level is pleasing to the mind and intellect. The first level is at the physiological level, the second level is at the psychological level, and the third level is the ethical level. I think Zhou Guoxian's photography has entered the level of morality and ethics.

Dong Yumei (a well-known expert in local history and literature and history in Wuhan): I am very happy to participate in the photography exhibition "Four Notes on Fusheng" today. I have known Mr. Zhou Guoxian for a long time, and I have seen a lot of his photographic works, and today I will talk about my views on his photographic works from a cultural perspective.

Documentary photography, our view is different from the photographer's. We look at the work more to consider cultural phenomena, we consider the historical information contained in the work, we do cultural research, what historical information is revealed in the photo, what is recorded, how to restore the historical background through this photo, which is what we pay more attention to. After watching Zhou Guoxian's works, in addition to being moved, I feel more ashamed from our point of view. For example, people on the water, the living conditions of people on the water we paid attention to more than ten years ago, now in Hanshui, many people on the water on the Yangtze River are not real Wuhan people, the real Wuhan water people, especially the Hanshui on the side of Hanzheng Street, went ashore in the fifties and sixties. There used to be an alley called Unity Lane in Qiaokou District, and the people living here were all old water people. They went ashore, and the government gave them a street, and the people on this street still retain a very strong living habit of people on the water, they are very united, and the mutual help between neighbors is much stronger than that of people on the shore. Why? Because of the insecurity on the water, the state of life on the water allows them to take care of each other more than those who live on the shore. We used to pay attention to this thing, we wanted to record their living conditions, and the way these people celebrate the festival during the New Year still retains the state of the water. But then for this reason, that reason, that is, there was no recording of the image, no photographing, only oral recording. If we can record it in the form of photos relatively early like Mr. Zhou Guoxian, perhaps we can easily restore the living conditions of people on the water. Mr. Zhou Guoxian has done this very well, quietly, steadfastly, every weekend, every rest time, is engaged in these, for the history of the water people to make a continuation, made a supplement, later these people now how they live on the water, we have a record through these photos.

Xian'an Fang. Xian'an Fang is the first outstanding historical building in all the lifen of Wuhan. The history of Xian'anfang, the history of the big level, we know more, how it was built before, which four li were merged, Xian'anfang was merged by Tongren Li and the other three lifen, merged in 72, and changed to red place names for a period of time during the Cultural Revolution in 72, when the red place name was changed back to the original place name, the four li of Xian'an Fang were merged, and the merger was collectively called Xian'an Fang. From the establishment of Xian'an Fang to today, it used to be very brilliant, not only the building is good, the steel windows, the personnel living in it are very high-grade. And there is another section, Wuhan's finance once occupied a very important position in Xian'anfang. During the fall of Wuhan, Xian'anfang's finance ruled this part of central China. We are relatively clear about this history. But how do we restore the people who lived in Xian'anfang in the past through the residents of Xian'anfang now, who lived in it, and what are its achievements? Today I saw that Zhou Guoxian's work records what business the ancestors of the household do, what they do, and there are some very detailed things. We look at the historical materials through these details, we may find that Xian'anfang also contains many other stories that have not been excavated before, these stories can also enrich the history of Hankou, enrich the culture of Hankou, from a cultural point of view, Mr. Zhou Guoxian's photos and their records can make up for the lack of historical materials in Wuhan, which is where we as regional cultural workers are inferior to him. We didn't do as much detail as he did, and we felt that there was a big sequence, a big vein, but after looking at his photography, I felt that we should dig deeper. This is what I have a big impression.

From the perspective of a layman in photography, some works are not very artistic. I don't do photography, it's how I feel when I look at pictures. I think some of the small number of pictures seem to be more prosaic, which is a very intuitive record of life. Wouldn't it be better if the photography was a little more artistic and impactful?

Dong Hongyou (Chairman of the Wuhan Writers Association): The documentary works presented by the state have already been said at the opening ceremony just now. The meaning of his photographs, the theme of today's seminar is very good: rational, emotional, aesthetic. That's great. I feel that it covers three very important dimensions of documentary photography. Zhou Guoxian's documentary photography also contributes to these three aspects.

The significance of Zhou Guoxian's photo is: First, his film is a sense of responsibility to society, so he is rational. Second, he had a deep affection for the subjects he photographed. He also has many stories, such as the fact that he made friends with these subjects and even went deep into their hometowns, which is very difficult. Third, he has his own unique aesthetic. Much of his aesthetic is international, and the international popularity of documentary photography, he also does a good job in this area.

Just now, Professor Jiang said that many of his pictures need words for co-construction and co-construction, which is his advantage and strength. His films have stories, plots, and can be coherent. It is a rapid force, concentrated on a certain point, concentrated forces to fight a war of annihilation like a point, which is the biggest advantage of the success of his film. He did it almost topic by topic. We now see a lot, including documentary photographers in Shanghai, who have set their sights on cancer patients, drug rehabilitation centers, and also photographed villages and lepers who sell blood. Guoxian set his sights on the bottom of Wuhan and the scene of change. In a sense, the current era of change should be the golden age of documentary photography, sometimes very embarrassing, the country is not prosperous, the private prosperous, especially during the war, the period of great change always provides more contradictions and conflicts for artists. The changes of the country, the nation, life, and family, the collisions, joys, angers and sorrows, when we look at it from the perspective of human nature, it happens to be the best golden period of artists. The period of change in our city should also be the golden age of documentary photography. Zhou Guoxian, due to long-term preparation and long-term persistence, he is now catching up with this period, and he can have more and better works in this big wave after precipitation.

There are two sides to everything, and this side is his strength, and conversely his weakness. I agree with what Yumei said, his films are based on group photos and group photos, and are known for themes, stories, and plots, can we make it shocking without the help of words? This is the next direction of Guoxian's efforts. Detach from a specific environment, take off this group of photos, so that each single photo has the ability to tell a story, in the past, a group told a story, ten photos told a story. The next step may be to see Guo Xian tell a story with a single photo, and even without words, you can let everyone read the world from your film, character relationships, and light and shadow effects. Of course, I'm not talking about very extreme photojournalism, such as a fighter who is hit by a bullet when he ascends the heights; Nor is it that the American sailors hugged a woman and kissed him when they came ashore, and his bent posture left a figure for history; Nor is it Monroe's streets in the United States, where the wind blows her skirt. Those are very classic historical moments, which can be said to be art photography or news photography, and I think documentary photography is also completely possible to achieve the shock of images with a single rich informativeness. This is the goal of Guoxian's next efforts, and he may be more careful. I saw that there was a descendant of Jiqing Street, two people talking there, captured by you, these two people later became husband and wife, which is rare, this is a rare memorial for them personally, if not explained, everyone does not know, it is very interesting to integrate it into the story of Jiqing Street, if it is a single photo?

Hopes and appeals. Today, the elites of the entire Hubei Wuhan photography industry have come, there are many predecessors in the theoretical circle, and now documentary photography is not just a matter for photographers, everyone has sharp weapons in their hands, artifacts, and mobile phones. Now mobile phone photography has become a very large group of documentary photography, and WeChat and Weibo platforms have also become the largest self-media. How do we in the photography community pay attention to these phenomena, exclude them from photographic attention, or include them in our attention? This is what I want to teach Mr. Ding, Mr. Jiang and all the photographers. Our mass, large-scale documentary photography also needs experts, photographers, theorists and media friends in the photography industry to appeal, advocate, and guide, which is a very important point I want to say. I said that this thinking does not mean to regulate QQ, I am from the perspective of photography. Let the general public and the public see that many things shot by my mobile phone will also enter the scope of documentary photography or photography circles. As photographers, photography associations, photography enthusiasts, we have expanded the aesthetic function of this society, and we have also done a little thing. I hope that the photographers association, photographers, and photographer theorists will encourage and guide the current large-scale use of mobile phones, cameras, and SLR documentary photography, so that our documentary photography will be richer.

Moderator Ding Zunxin: Just now, Jiangbeizhan discussed the cognition, power and relationship of documentary photography, and cultural scholar Dong Yumei fully explained the documentary value of documentary photography, its uniqueness in regional culture, and made many affirmations of documentary photography. The famous writer Dong Hongyou talked about the unfinished words at the opening ceremony, he is not only a writer, but also a photography theorist, he talked about three points, I think they are all very good, the relationship between rationality, emotion and aesthetics. Zhou Guoxian's works have a strong narrative, but the generalization, independence and typicality are relatively poor, and I hope that the experts will give full play to the documentary on WeChat and mobile phones.

Xie Guoan (famous photographer): I am relatively rare to see people like Zhou Guoxian, and when I held an exhibition last year, I gave me a copy of "Biandan", and I felt very delicate at that time, and someone actually photographed the biandan in Hanzheng Street like this. Many people have photographed the flat dan of Hanzheng Street before, and they have all been reported in the newspaper, but Zhou Guoxian's flat dan is different, it goes very deep, and it takes more effort. I was amazed by the people who walked the streets all day, and I saw more people taking pictures of flowers and buildings and pavilions whenever I walked on the streets. I wondered, how is this generation doing documentary photography? Zhou Guoxian gave me another copy of "People on the Water" in August. Zhou Guoxian's book is unprecedented and very evocative. I feel that Zhou Guoxian's attitude is almost obsessive and religious, and I admire it very much. I go out on the street whenever I take a break on holidays, and you can't do well without this spirit, without an obsessive and reverent attitude towards photography, this is the general law, and I admire him very much. I also very much agree with the remarks made by Chairman Jia Liancheng at the opening ceremony, Zhou Guoxian is extraordinary, and has led a group of people, these people are rare in photography, we hope that more people will go to the streets to record the history of urban development. When I gave them lectures, I also said that documentary photography is the most essential thing in the entire photography process for more than 100 years, and it is also the mainstream thing.

Watching the exhibition of Zhou Guoxian's works, I saw that the production of his exhibition is very well-made, the color is very suitable for the theme, the emotions of the photographed and expressed characters are very clear, and the sophistication of various pictures and texts is very full. People who generally make pictures know very well that the text is very thick and rich, and even surpasses the picture in some aspects, which is a good place and a slightly insufficient place. Because his words are very full, many people have also seen it, and the common feeling is that his words are very emotional, which shows that he interviewed everyone and understood the events when he did this. When Southern Weekend interviewed me, he asked what would happen to the subject when taking pictures, and I said that I definitely don't have any communication with the other person because I keep the pictures fresh. Of course, everyone's way is different. I found that he was very opposite to me, he went deep into the details, and he went deeper, he was completely integrated with the subject, and every moment of photography was kept fresh, and he got better pictures, which is his difference. This also shows that Zhou Guoxian has a very rich emotion for the subject of photography, he belongs to the news report, thematic report, because of his full text, so his photo exhibition is very readable. We can see from the consciousness of Zhou Guoxian's exhibition pictures, it is not as we traditionally think, we talk about traditional when we talk about pictures. In fact, traditional and classic things are different, the classic does not pay much attention to the experience of the image, the artistry of each single picture, in fact, the artistry may be a little imaginary, in fact, it is the experience temperament of the picture, the proximity moment without any intervention, including wide angle, stable composition and random multi-point scattered composition, this is what we need to grasp, he is not using traditional better excellent photography techniques, but based on expressing a street and a city, a water and a rain loose atmosphere. Judging from his pictures, it is simply not a picture representation with a strong story. A strong story should have a beginning, middle, and end of the story. For example, traditional photography is more classic in the United States Magnum Pictures Agency feature report photography, such as country doctors, Minamata, a series of special reports, this is very classic, Eugene Smith is the grandfather of report photography and news photo photography, and so many, it seems that his reports are still being reprinted, which has its own reason. In works like Eugene Smith, we can talk about the difference in definition. Zhou Guoxian's early photography does not belong to documentary photography in the full sense, his photography belongs to news special reports, news special reports belong to a special topic to do, if you want to make a documentary photographer, for example, I am doing my Wuhan city in real time, do a lot of special topics after forming a charm, such as Wuhan people too early, Wuhan nightlife, Wuhan bamboo bed array, a series, forming the layout of the entire society, the systematization and integrity of the whole society to form the result of documentary photography. Zhou Guoxian's current report on feature photography is very homely, but don't rush to say that it is documentary photography, including Eugene Smith's special feature, the early stage is not documentary photography, but a number of years to form a classic, stay in history, become a witness of that era, it has become documentary photography, but also become a classic in documentary photography. Zhou Guoxian does not use many very classic techniques to shoot image consciousness, but with a relatively loose charm of a mountain and a water, the original taste of life scenes, the simplicity of character events, and the details of one thing and one person, but many people in the entire exhibition have seen it, and in the exhibition hall, everyone speaks in unison about the subtleties, the meaning is long, and the sincere emotions of the people's lives, this emotion is obvious to all. After watching it, everyone felt that Zhou Guoxian was very sincere when taking photos, integrated with the true feelings of the subjects, ate together, and even helped them solve problems. I was very moved after seeing all the texts, he was able to do such a thing in this way, only Zhou Guoxian was alone, and it was rare to see such a uniqueness. The sense of responsibility and responsibility for historical events is also what he has, and it reflects Zhou Guoxian's expression of wisdom and interest in life and work. This is reflected in the photos inside the exhibition hall.

Of course, the most important point is that the organization of the four parts is very clear, and the most valuable thing is that the very strong common feature of the four topics is that they are people-oriented, and all expressions are carried out with people as the main line. With people as the main line, it is very difficult to grasp the characters. Literature is anthropology, basically describing characters; Painting is also about the height of the figure; Photography is the most difficult, if the emotional structure of the character is well expressed, the excitement of this photo and the photography expressed are more meaningful; If a person photographs photographed the object as a person, he gives himself a greater challenge. This is like the stormy moon of salon photography that is often opposed, and people who have done photography for many years will disdain, which also makes some sense. This makes the content more difficult to grasp and at the same time deepens the difficulty of completing the work, which is what we all often call a high difficulty and a higher value of the work of art. If your photographic work is very understated, no one will think that this work has contemporary value. There are many photos in the exhibit that I like very much, the old man in the wind and snow in the flat stretcher is holding a plastic bag, the time, place, and the emotional expression of the characters in the wind and snow make people feel very sincere. The better photos are the work at the fork, which is better in form, burning paper money, commemorating the death of their father, and watching TV, the water people Qingchuan Bridge are very good. These photos are all because of his sense of responsibility for history, which makes his photos have a strong readability and allegory. To trace the history of a city, documentary photography is undoubtedly the best way to seal history, or witness memory. We see from Zhou Guoxian's work that preserving a sincere record is a value that goes beyond all photographic categories in a general sense, and its social value is naturally self-evident. Zhou Guo's precious treasure is very precious, and we should thank him for this exhibition.

Hope for him. Today, there are editors of the People's Photography Daily, and there are also some experts, famous artists, I hope to make things bigger, the biggest problem in Chinese photography and contemporary Chinese documentary photography is the problem of formalism. Form and content are two crucial points of a photograph. We talk a little more about formalism, and we also pay attention to it as photographers, including theorists. But whenever we come up with a work, formalism is lacking. Zhou Guoxian exhibited more than 100 works, and the works with very good formalism were still a little weaker. In my personal opinion, looking at the Chinese photography industry, one is that the Chinese photography industry goes hand in hand, and the prejudices are very deep, such as the southern school, the Shanghai school, and the Beijing school. There are many phenomena in Chinese photography, and there are many weaknesses in the formalist structure, when we see the works of masters, such as the works of excellent masters in history, such as Koudka, Smith, Xander and so on. Last year, I went to France to hold an exhibition and saw the original exhibition of Bresser's works, and there were more than 180 paintings, none of which were superfluous, and each one was a classic. I flipped through their catalogues, and some of the most famous people in France, including Kodka, whose book was small, 88 pages of pictures, but each one surprised me, none of which was superfluous, and none of which was in bad form. However, I compare with everyone in China, some of the artists we admire, when he comes out with a book, when he comes out with a solo exhibition, often there are not many formalism and great photos. I can make a simple analogy, Wuhan area, we once for Hu Weiming a set of photos, "Relocation", that photo everyone thinks is very wonderful, at that time he was on the riverside, the Three Gorges migrants in the reflection of the image in the closet, this is formalism, this is undeniable to everyone, anyone who looks at it feels too good. Formalism is an understanding of photography for everyone. When I ran exhibitions and published books, my exhibition was 200 pictures, selected from 780,000 photos, what reason do you have to make your photos dull, what reason not to keep these 200 or so wonderful. Before the Cultural Revolution, everyone felt that the propaganda of the influence of the political climate was wrong, and now many exhibitions are still so big and empty, especially formalism is set aside. I saw some exhibitions in Europe, not that formalism throws away content, where there is content, form is the first element, and every photo is wonderful. I bought two books in France, one is an artist of Ho Chi Minh, interviewing the fishing village of the island, from getting on the boat, every photo is taken, including getting off the train at the station, taking pictures of the road sign on the ground of the station, which shows that it is pulled apart from time to time, which also shows the importance of formalism in the work of a photographer, whenever we talk about it, we know it, but many exhibitions and personal pursuits ignore it, which is also what we must strengthen, this is also my expectation for Zhou Guoxian, hoping that his works will go to a higher level in the future , which is a very good way.

Host Ding Zunxin: Mr. Xie Guoan has filmed the daily life of Wuhan people for decades and made it into a series, and he was very surprised and admired by Zhou Guoxian's works and Zhou Guoxian's behavior just now; Of course, Guoan put forward a different opinion, is Zhou Guoxian's work called documentary? This involves the relationship between thematic photography and documentary photography, how to define, Xie Guoan put forward the relationship between documentary and thematic photography, the relationship between content and form, very sincerely, very earnestly put forward the direction of Zhou Guoxian's future efforts. What is the relationship between the narrative and generalization of the work?

Song Gangming (famous photographer): I have known Guoxian for many years, I have been paying attention to his shooting, there are many people shooting in Wuhan, photographers in Wuhan are both depressed and lucky, the distressed is that photographers in Wuhan are not like photographers in the west, such as Chengdu and Yunnan, there are so good scenery to shoot, which is the misfortune of Wuhan photographers; But it is also its luck, there are not so many winds and snows to shoot, just honestly shoot people. I have also met many people who photographed Wuhan, such as the dock and the flat dang, I have seen several waves and done exhibitions. But Zhou Guoxian has its advantages and characteristics, and he has a very detailed written record, which is not easy to do, at least I can't do it. He is like fieldwork, which is the most difficult job, and I always think that photography is a gift from the present to the future. Someone asked me if this photo is good, and you close your eyes and think about whether people will still look at this photo in 20 years, and will they still see whether the sea of clouds today is high or not in 20 years? Because the weather forecast on that day is meaningless for people in 20 years, people in 20 years must look at how people live now. People in this era still have flat burdens, picking things shirtless, which may not be available at that time, which is a very valuable image material. At least from the perspective of documentary photography, Zhou Guoxian has done a remarkable thing, done very detailed, investigated very thoroughly, which is not easy to do. This is the first level. Regarding the second level, the construction of image language. This is not his problem alone, all Chinese photographers have this problem. There is a lot of fuss, a lot of fuss, a lot of hype in China, and few people who really achieve the quality of international photography. We often either do not attach importance to language, or attach too much importance to language, always talking about innovation, concepts, cutting-edge, and always want to get rich overnight, which is the lack of a solid mentality. Zhou Guoxian at least has a very solid mentality. His photography is not so good in terms of verbal expression, but at least it is not annoying. We tend to make some video works very annoying. I have seen many people shoot the flat dan of Hanzheng Street, with an ultra-wide angle, extremely long, very large, the character comics are dropped, lack of an honest mentality, this is the rush to achieve quick results, eager to become famous overnight. If photography can't be done well, don't be annoying, get rid of impetuousness, take pictures quietly, and if you do it well, you will be recognized one day. Don't hype, don't flicker, be a solid person, do one thing well. Guoxian has done such a thing step by step with so many years of calmness, this is what we should learn from him, and people should thank him in the future, he left an image file of a certain aspect of the most ordinary and lowest people in Wuhan, and did it very systematically. Many people have a hammer in the east and a stick in the west, and they cannot do systematization.

Moderator Ding Zunxin: In addition to talking about the relationship between content and form, Song Gangming also emphasized Zhou Guoxian's work style and behavior mode, such as very detailed text and a unique way of combining pictures and texts, which is his characteristic and difficult to achieve. The formal language and the starting point of creation, the attitude of creation should not be too utilitarian, how to be solid, Zhou Guoxian's practice is relatively solid, and he has done a lot of things, and it is indeed not easy to record meticulously and in detail like him.

Shen Xiangsheng (famous artist and photographer): I would like to say two impressions, first, about the author. I have not been in contact with this author for a long time, but I agree with the statements of several teachers just now. I basically haven't taken many photos in recent years, because now the various new media forms of mobile phones are too general when expressing the concept and thought of images, which is somewhat different from what I am used to, so I tend to watch more. Many of the teachers here are the objects of my study and speculation, continuous research and analysis when I am studying photography, and have made great contributions to photography. But in recent years, there have been many creative people who have shot a lot of things, and I don't think I'm interested much. After seeing this exhibition today, I agree with the statements made by the teachers just now, and indeed he has inherited a lot of precious things in photography. From the perspective of documentary photography authors, the subject matter, performance, and working methods he focuses on reflect that he has preserved and inherited the good tradition of documentary photography as a photographer of his era. In the current society, Wuhan has a slogan called "Wuhan, every day is different", which leaves us photographers, especially documentary photographers, a great treasure trove of creation, and the subject matter is infinite. What do we focus on? What do we show? It gives us a great platform. I also agree with the teachers, and I am very grateful to have such an author who provided us with this work.

Questions about the heritage, development and innovation of documentary photography. My main job is to teach, and the first photography major in Hubei Province was done in our college (Note: School of Communication, Wuhan Textile University). Especially in photography, I follow the concept that if there is someone else's shadow in your work, it is a veto. The innovation of photographic works, especially documentary photography, is now a very important proposition for the cultivation of photographic talents. I remember that there is a very famous college in the UK called the Royal College of Art in an art exhibition, the teacher mentioned the purpose of their college, he said: "The first task of our students is to get him out of the field he is used to, that is, what will you do, try not to do it from this aspect; Keep experimenting, keep practicing, keep thinking critically." After so many years of the development of the tide of documentary photography in China, we have emerged so many excellent creators, these good works, how do we develop and do next? At the same time, I am also sensitive to the fact that there are still many problems in traditional photography? Just now, I heard what Dong Yumei said, and I have an inspiration, photography, like many other disciplines, is now beginning to develop towards a kind of cross-integration and multidisciplinary integration. For example, now photography begins to intersect with cultural studies, anthropology, semiotics, phenomenology and other fields, from the previous intuitive, perceptual, documentary photography began to move towards a profound analysis and study of things, or we present it. After all, photography is a visual art, and in the early days of the development of photography, it was more closely combined with literature, and most of the photographic works were narratives. Now after the development, in art design or fine arts to provide society and mankind with a lot of new contributions and new knowledge, how can these new knowledge be integrated with the current documentary photography and photography? How to apply these new results to works in photography? These are a few of the ways in which documentary photography is developing today. How can we make the work more profound and more meaningful? For example, Zhou Guoxian's photos of the riverside I have also taken, there is a boat, there are dozens of families on that boat, all of them are the flat dan of Hanzheng Street, I once took a set of photos, participated in the international academic conference on the research topic of human settlement environment in Japan, this international academic conference is dedicated to the study of the impact of the living environment of some disadvantaged people on people, I took a speech at the academic conference at that time, which attracted the attention of many international scholars. They are very concerned about the ecology of migrants entering the city during the process of urbanization in China. Our documentary photography vision should be broader, we should not only pay attention to some superficial things, in fact, there are many very profound things, a very deep understanding of social development, our views, our thoughts.

Much of photography today has become a tool, a research method. When we use documentary techniques to present some phenomena, the image information carried by them is a very important treasure trove for us to further understand things, and it will be more fermented after a few years, and value-added effects and value-added value will continue to appear. In documentary photography, documentary photographers should cross borders and integrate with various disciplines to form their own unique artistic styles and artistic achievements.

Moderator Ding Zunxin: Dean Shen mentioned two very important points, the critical consciousness of documentary photography, one is the criticism of society and the object, and the other is self-criticism. In addition, he proposed the integration of multiple disciplines, which is also a very important directional significance in the future development of documentary photography.

Liu Yu (Deputy Director of Wuhan Art Museum): I am a layman, and all of you here are some seniors, experts and teachers, let me introduce to you several photography exhibitions held by Wuhan Art Museum in recent years. This year is the sixth year of Wuhan Art Museum, in recent years in the national art museum industry to do not a lot of photos, videos are not very much, the original Guangdong Museum of Art did some, now Wang Huangsheng transferred to the Central Academy of Fine Arts Guangdong Museum of Art did not do it. In the past six years, Wuhan Art Museum has intentionally or unintentionally done some Chinese and foreign photography exhibitions, and many teachers here are authors and curators. We did Mark Lübu's photography exhibition, British John Rankin's, the "Former Dust Shadow" photography exhibition done the year before last, last year's French Photography Centennial Exhibition, the 100-year photography exhibition of China in the eyes of the French, and the Yu Xi exhibition done in the past few days, which was also curated by Mr. Huang Yihuang, as well as the exhibition of Mr. Peng Niansheng, the exhibition of Mr. Xie Guoan, and this year did Ma Jianxiong's exhibition of Wuhan old windows. We at Wuhan Art Museum want to base ourselves in this city, and we have an idea to make Wuhan images the key collection or key research direction of Wuhan Art Museum. I happened to be in Beijing a few days ago to participate in the collection exhibition of each art museum of the Ministry of Culture this year, I brought Ma Jianxiong's exhibition to the past, the national art museum industry compared with them, these old museums are all Qi Baishi, Fu Baoshi and everyone's works, but our video works are unique inside, everyone has given a high evaluation to our selection of materials, the scarcity of the subject matter, and the depth of research. As the Wuhan Art Museum, we are willing to provide more platforms for Wuhan artists to jointly create a series of Wuhan video works. Today's exhibition of Mr. Zhou, I will talk about my personal thoughts, he pays special attention to our city, pays attention to the bottom, his vision is very unique, and he is very diligent, he inherits a wave of documentary photographers to reflect the fine tradition of the history and current situation of the city, and is very attentive. I have a little different opinion, I think too much attention to the theme, the content and form of the excavation is still a little lacking, teacher Xie Guoan also shows the old town, the past points, there is still a gap in the weight of the work, especially the theme of Hanzheng Street, it is also not easy to shoot, there are many people inside, it is originally a very messy scene, I feel that the scene is a little complicated, how to choose the work, in the unique language form needs to be improved, he can do this I admire him very much, I also hope that he will achieve higher achievements in the future through today's seminar and the forum, analysis and demonstration of the artist teacher.

Moderator Ding Zunxin: We should thank the Wuhan Art Museum, which has indeed done a lot of work for the photography exhibition, and the problem mentioned by Director Liu and mentioned by everyone is that excessive attention to the subject matter, and excessive reliance on the subject will weaken the artistic appeal, generalization and flatness of the work.

Zhou Bo (independent curator, photography critic, famous photographer): At the Pingyao International Photography Festival last year, I presented Zhou Guo with a solo exhibition called "Biandan: The Legend of Hanzheng Street". When I started curating "Bian Dan", this subject was exhibited at the Lishui International Photography Festival, we knew each other before this, he began to let me watch his films, we communicated a lot, I knew more about Wuhan is the symbolic thing of Hanzheng Street, so I was very interested. Last year he took out some works for me to curate, he began to select some films, I was not very satisfied, and then I said you take all the original materials, I want to master your entire process, the control of the shooting site, the use of language, I have to grasp it all, communicate a certain way, and then find a clue to present, from the exhibition to present. Most of the films in the exhibition now are selected by me from his most original films at that time, and I am very moved by many scenes and many details. In Pingyao, the response was very good and won the "Excellent Photographer Award".

Documentary photography, like this type of recording, from more than one or twenty years ago, Wang Zheng's Xihaigu, Qingdao's No. 10 compound, and Wang Fuchun's, this type of documentary has long awakened, this type of photography is accumulated over the years, this type of documentary photography has been hot for a while, and has been almost replaced by new talents in recent years. Now such a photographic context is basically rare. In recent years, the Pingyao Photography Festival and the Lishui Photography Festival, although the exhibitions I have curated have won awards, I said that the main thing for you to win the award is persistence, and you must adhere to the topic well. There are also railway workers of Zhengzhou Railway Bureau who have been shooting for seven or eight years, and last year in the Lishui International Photography Festival also won the best exhibition award, at that time of the exhibition and some photographers chatted together, this kind of topics are rare, or students, young students are more active, language patterns renewed, appear fresher, more cutting-edge, are cutting-edge language shooting methods and language presentation, honest, plain photography records of the topic is almost rarely seen, too few. But we have a common understanding, is this kind of photography still needed? Just now we have talked about documentary, critical, and documentary, which is everyone's consensus. Since it has such value, it should still have the necessity of its existence and its own value, and I have done more in this aspect when I am doing curation.

From the perspective of photography language, I have seen some things at the photography festival in recent years, and I feel that the new cutting-edge has been occupying a huge platform and stage, I think the new photographic language is a language flow in the exploration of photography, the transformation of language, everyone has been looking for a breakthrough, in this breakthrough and imitation abroad, and the world photographers when to find a breakthrough, produce a kind of imitation, slowly form another "sugar water piece". Saying that sugar water tablets may seem like a derogatory term, but it is actually a rhetoric of language. Like Zhou Guoxian's honest record, plain language is another presentation. Xinrui emphasizes the inner things, the poetic things, the internal, and emphasizes going to the heart.

Regarding the value of the literature, let me talk about my feelings about Wuhan. My concept of Wuhan includes what is now heavy industry, Hanzheng Street Commercial Terminal, which is the cultural symbol of Wuhan in my impression. Zhou Guoxian has made significant contributions in this regard, and no photographer in the country has scanned, paid attention to, and observed the bottom culture and social culture of a city in an almost panoramic way, of course, this observation needs to be deepened. However, his phased work has achieved very gratifying results. Everyone has said a lot about Zhou Guoxian's achievements and dedication, and I admire it.

I would like to make two suggestions: First, the phased task has been completed, do not stop, but continue to shoot, starting from several aspects, one is the lack of detailed and expressive plot, these aspects need to be strengthened. The second is a combination of longitudinal follow-up shooting and random shooting, such as Xian'anfang, where some families can shoot more deeply and vertically, which is still lacking from now. Third, the integrity and maturity of the entire image can be strengthened, whether it is narrative or other levels of concern.

Moderator Ding Zunxin: He spoke earnestly about the rheology of documentary photography and the value of documentary photography that he just talked about on Monday. Record photography should be persistent, documentary photography has its own value, we must have a relatively clear understanding of the language of flux, both suggestions are very good. Please Mr. Huang Yihuang below.

Huang Yihuang (famous photography theory critic and curator): I was very impressed after watching the exhibition of Guoxian, he belongs to a relatively diligent photographer, the degree of diligence in Wuhan to do video recording belongs to a relatively small group of people, such people are not too many, often carry a camera, and is a more exaggerated back camera, in fact, as far as I see to do records there is no need to carry a large bag, should be a small camera is more appropriate, but he has been used to this for many years, and there is a problem with the lumbar disc, and he has to carry such a large bag. He has made a contribution, which is why today's exhibition is here, and more than ten people who spoke on the stage just now talked about the various achievements of the national exhibition, and I will also talk about three points.

First, he adheres to the traditional attitude of being a documentary photographer or documentary photographer, and persists and persists.

Second, he was smart, and he grasped the four entry points, four angles, to cut into the city record in Wuhan. For example, he cut into Hanzheng Street, there is no doubt that he is a foreigner to Wuhan, once in the 70s and 80s after the reform and opening up the most vigorous street, the most attracted the attention of Chinese and even foreigners, and in terms of his work and study major, his occupation, he is still sensitive to economic changes, so he cut the first topic into Hanzheng Street, very smart, because this is a source of Wuhan city to today, towards modernity, towards deep reform. The second entry point, I have examined in time, what camera he used, and at what point in time I have all examined. He cut into these two topics almost at the same time, "Lifen" and "Water People", a few months apart, "Lifen" represents Wuhan from the opening of the port a few years after the city construction is a very representative urban architecture, and this building also led to the Hankou people's way of life in it to be very well reflected, unfortunately, the photos he showed me and the photos that once let me cut into the purpose of the division was a little late. "Water People" cut into the time is more timely, after the group of people ashore in the early years, this is a group of people who do not do business, not temporarily moored boats here live here, I once had students photograph people on the water in 08, and mostly people from Jingzhou, doing business, you need to live in this place, you need to have a place to live, there is such an opportunity, fish sellers, hoard fish here, Hanshui wild fishmongers to the river to sell a suitable price for a living was moved by the government, Their boats are unpowered boats and they have to stay here, or they have to try to move out themselves, which just gives a lot of people a chance to live here, they are a very special group. Cutting into this place is related to Wuhan becoming a dock culture, Wuhan in the early years is because of the ship here to do business, transportation, leading to the establishment of the local dock culture of the nine provinces, the residential culture of urban residents, the early commercial origin culture of the water people, and even the night citizen consumption and amateur life culture of Jiqing Street, the four points are well cut, this is his smarter place, the choice is very good.

He shoots up close and integrates into his subjects, he and Xie Guoan are two different ways of photographic behavior, both of which have countless successful precedents in the history of photography, I don't need to say more here, and there are even people who live directly with the subject all year round. He chooses to get close to these subjects, make friends, and integrate into the private space, so he can say the joys and sorrows of others, and can express in more detail in the text, which is different from other people's photographic records, and it is more prominent in him.

These are three aspects that are more valuable. What needs to be mentioned is that the photos presented in this exhibition still have some room for improvement, and continue to do it in the future, whether it is to do these topics or change to something else, I think there is a need for something that can be improved, improved and strengthened. Since so many exhibitions have already been made, and they have already had a small impact, we should have more encouragement and demand for him. Now do the four topics, each topic is telling a story, telling the story about the people of Hanzheng Street, here his definition is Biandan, the scope of this definition is relatively narrow, you should do the story of Biandan, things that have nothing to do with Biandan should be outside the story, how to tell the story of Biandan? Some of his speech is still good, and I also did an exhibition of his works in Hanzheng Street, from the end of '13 to the Spring Festival in '14, three months after the Spring Festival, in the Wuhan Museum. It is a very hard work to do an exhibition for him, he has a lot of his own ideas, whether it is text or pictures, there are a lot of them, but what I want to see is a story, since you do this topic, how can we tell a story. When I was doing an exhibition for him, I retold him a story, which is completely different from the story that Bo did with him on Monday, and this story is at least no worse than today's one, in my opinion. This is a question of how to grasp the logical relationship between words and pictures, not whether individual photos are wonderful, but how to tell this story well with stories and stories, people and people, details and plots, because you are talking about one thing in this place, a big thing, not a small thing. Second, you are shooting Wuhan, the image is easier to attract attention, in addition to memory, how can you present the most prominent part of urban life, it is natural for everyone to think about whether it can be compared with Xie Guoan, but there is no way to compare, because the two people are different ways of behavior and focus, but there is a place that can be improved, that is, this taste of Wuhan, the taste of Wuhan people's life, is it possible to extract from the image. I put this question here, I personally think it is okay, but for the communication, recording, performance, and presentation of images, is not possible, that is what the country itself has to face.

Third, his advantage, this advantage brings a problem, that is, how to grasp this degree of over-dependence on the subject matter and the object, that is, the problem of distance and proximity. How do you summarize these people in it, or write it down casually, there are things, there are pictures, is it over? This is a question that needs to be refined and needs to be chosen by everyone. You can choose not or choose, but I think this degree needs to be grasped. Because there are some loss degrees in his photos, the control is not ideal. He has the potential to do better in this regard.

Host Ding Zunxin: Mr. Huang fully affirmed Zhou Guoxian's diligence and persistence, and put forward another point of view, recording how photography tells stories, themes, characters, details, how they develop and how to combine the grasp of details, characters, and development with the characteristics of Wuhan to shoot Han flavor, he put forward a lot of earnest hopes. The following is Director Tian Fei.

Tian Fei (Director of the Photography Department of Yangtze River Daily): I am very happy to see Zhou Guoxian launch this documentary photography exhibition. There are really not many photographers in Wuhan who shoot urban documentaries and urban humanities, and I have had more contact with the photography circle and the team with a very strong creative desire over the years, and you may be more energetic in shooting the city scenery beautiful, good-looking, construction, or things with publicity functions. But aside from some fame and fortune, there are very few photographers who really record the city, the mundane stories of the city in which they live every day. Not long ago, such a group set up a "Wuhan Plate Eye Shadow Club" non-governmental group, without any organizational form, I have seen almost all the works of this group, and I feel very gratified, this group of people really regard this city as a birth, raise him, full of emotion and full of social responsibility to look at this city, their photography is very valuable to the history of Wuhan. Maybe we don't see this value today, but in ten or twenty years, these works should be valuable. From the four angles of Zhou Guoxian's own cutting, from the perspective of the city to express it in the form of documentary photography, he is more willing to use his brain. There are also several characteristics, many people have filmed, like Bian Dan , Teacher Hu should have a lot of say, he took a lot of Bian Dan a long time ago, including Wu Jianguo, and other comrades, including your water people, I also filmed, I shot the photographic feature "Five Boats One Home" in 05, after shooting this I have not put it down, often to accumulate some. Documentary photography is indeed not a surprise solution, it is a long-term tracking, an accumulation. Documentary photography really should remove impetuosity and calm down and quietly do what you should do.

When it comes to the rationality, emotion and aesthetics of documentary photography, this topic is relatively broad. Regarding rationality, from the perspective of documentary photography, rationality is very important. Rationality is a deep understanding of social phenomena, social images themselves, there are many seniors and teachers here, three French documentary photographers have a great influence on our creation, whether it is theory or practice, one is Cérieuer, one is Marc Rubble, and Duino, the style of these three people belongs to this category from the scope of documentary photography. But looking closely at each person is indeed very characteristic, Bresson's decisive moment, from the content of documentary photography is often concerned with images, although many major events are also recorded, but the relationship between image moments, moments and images, from an aesthetic and aesthetic point of view occupies greater weight. Duino's artistic and visual moments, the visual and appealing power of images, are his more important characteristics. Mark Lübu has the greatest influence on me, and Mark Lübu's photographic works abroad may not necessarily feel particularly deep, but you can look at his works with Chinese themes, which are indeed very accurate. Documentary photography is to remember the essence of a society, and the essence of society is covered by a variety of social phenomena, or even submerged, sometimes documentary photography may lose itself in the creation, and even lose the direction of their efforts. Mark Lübu's accurate performance of Chinese society surprised me very much, he really deeply understood the nature and phenomenon of Chinese society. Through another photographer, we can see that Brother An published a book called "Living in the Age of Deng Xiaoping", which is divided into upper and lower volumes, 80s and 90s, through these two volumes of works have a great understanding. Speaking of rationality, Ange's creative experience, in the 80s, he was fortunate to meet Mark Lübu, Mark Lübu came to China for interviews, and he had a lot of time to accompany him for interviews because of work and identity. We look at Ange's works in the 80s, from the early Shenzhen, the window of China's reform and opening up for more than 30 years, one of the most important windows, as a profession, or work, it records a lot of China's reform and changes in the work, including the specific implementation of some events. After he got to know Mark Lübu, his understanding of China rose to a rational height, and with a rational height, he looked at the problem completely differently, and his analysis of the problem, the method of expression, the angle of entry, and the key points of society, then sublimated. Documentary photography, social understanding, the excavation of social essence is what a documentary photographer should ponder and understand, the most fundamental thing of documentary photography lies in this.

We call documentary photography, not documentary photography, and the difference between the two sides determines the difference in the photographic work itself. When we do photography, everyone says what is the concept and relationship between documentary photography and photojournalism, including the authenticity of photojournalism, documentary photography is the same. Documentary photography from the performance should still be classified in the category of art, documentary photography is to record social history, authenticity must be held, what kind of things are authentic, documentary photography from the function of recording each photographer's understanding and views on society are different, will definitely have his own subjective things. Documentary photography has developed to today's society, and now that the era of mobile phones and images has arrived, we should have innovative ideas in our understanding, interpretation and creative ideas of documentary photography.

After the Spring Festival last year, we made a special issue of "Homecoming" in Yangtze River Daily, we selected eight photojournalists from all over the country, when he went home for the New Year, he took pictures of his own hometown, photographed his own way home, we used eight pages to push, we can see the more innovative things of documentary photography through the works of these eight people. Innovation, concepts and breakthroughs in documentary photography are also what we should do, such as Zhu Changjiang, who has also insisted on photographing Wuhan for many years, but he may not be limited to Hanzheng Street, nor limited to people on the water, he has more subjective and image expression of what documentary photography expresses, which may have more communication effects on people's enlightenment.

The persistence of documentary photography is very important, which is fully reflected in Mr. Xie Guoan, which is also an example, an example, he insists on photographing Wuhan, in this way, this is the root of documentary photography.

Host Ding Zunxin: Tian Fei put forward the characteristics of the three great photographers in France, which is to remind Zhou Guoxian what kind of relationship there is between moment, plot and essence, documentary is not a record, documentary should be classified as art, documentary and news are related, but there is a difference. This reminds me that there is no documentary category in the art exhibition of the China Photographers Association, only a documentary category.

Huang Yihuang: There are two kinds of recording categories, one is news, the other is documentary, it is two aspects, some time ago it was a big concept, and before this were two sub-categories in the record category.

Moderator Ding Zunxin: He talks about journalism together with art.

Huang Yihuang: News should be timely, and documentary can not be timely.

Hu Weiming (photojournalist of Wuhan Evening News): Documentary photography is a concept of big time, not specific, and the way of communication is different.

First, I congratulate the national exhibition, and the discussion here is also a compliment, a kind of praise for your hard work. Teacher Ding spares no effort to support newcomers, the knife is not old, and it is also very meaningful to provide us with this platform for discussion. The entry point of the theme, the summary of the tourist city some time ago, three dishes and one soup, three streets, a water house, summarized and integrated relatively well, has a certain integration force. Just now several teachers also said, Hanzheng Street's flat dan , I once filmed in the mid-90s, when I participated in the National Documentary Symposium there was a literary critic who talked about these things, documentary photography is documentary, revealing and critical, can documentary photography be implemented and borrowed in this aspect, we have a journalist there who became a writer, Hanzheng Street's flat dan , I first shot for a reason, there is a revelatory effect, for the role of social observation and dissection, the original motivation is this. After watching the exhibition of Guoxian, one is to feel more cordial, many of our photography now go to the scenery of flowers, birds, fish and insects, he went another way, shooting urban documentaries. I photographed the flat dan on Hanzheng Street, in comparison, I photographed it at that time, there were some different places, I paid attention to several points, at that time there was a shelter in the city management, and the flat dan affected the appearance of the city on the street, and sometimes the flat dan was secretly packed in a sack and thrown into the shelter. But I couldn't take such pictures in the shelter, and then history changed and changed. I took a picture on the Han River Bridge, when Bian Dan bought the leftover clothes of Wuhan people for five cents a piece, and there were hippie smiling faces of very elderly people in the countryside, or girls who were flattering goods. I was very impressed with this detail. Later, a set of four Chinese stories was published at the Dangyipin Cultural Festival, and the bian dan of Hanzheng Street was included in it. The "Biandan" presented by the state, one is that modern society has been tolerated and has not treated Biandan as before, which is the development of society; In addition, some structures have changed, in the past, I photographed flat dan houses for urban low-income people living in it for five cents a day, but now we see that there are a large number of flat dan houses so that flat dan can live. Guoxian also took some contradictions and conflicts, such as a photo of the person who kept the account and collected the account, such details are better. After the development of the market economy, after the social tolerance, some new forms of changes have occurred, in this sense, documentary photography records these details, let the historical details change, record it, this is its value.

When discussing several basic characteristics of documentary photography, these problems have been covered in Dalian, which are better summarized. Aesthetics and how photos are taken have independent value, so that everyone recognizes, in the history of photography or different from peers, more personality, which mainly emphasizes aesthetics. The sense of moment in the artists of Jiqing Street photographed in this exhibition is more vivid than the image in Hanzheng Street, probably because the object itself is an artist, sparrow, old Tongcheng, painted performance, performative, if the photograph of Hanzheng Street has this sense of moment, there is a photographic instant language, this influence is different. About several French photographers, I went to France with Tian Fei this time, did an investigation, and found two photographers to give us a lecture, one is Jeff, an American photographer doing fashion photography in France, which used to be 3,000 euros an hour, not counting copyright, now only 1,000 euros, the economic situation in France is not good. Another French photographer said that new photography was more popular, and I asked him what he thought of Marc Rub's photographs, and they immediately said it was nine o'clock in the morning. Compare humor and humor. They may act as an academic and feel that new photography is replacing traditional documentary photography. Editor Jia recently posted an exclusive interview with two people, and there is a Yang Shuhuai in Changsha, Hunan Province, who not only does traditional documentary, but also turns to new documentary. Xie Guoan's photos may be waiting, secretly taken, Yang Shuhuai solicited objects, I will shoot, shoot "The Young Man Who Opened the House", which combines this new method and documentary photography technique. This is also a very popular one, or in line with the current trend of market economy. If this kind of theme continues to be paid attention to, is this technique going to change? Or do you stick to it? Because our social history is changing, and social processes are changing, should the methods of reflection also change? There may be a lot to be done.

Moderator Ding Zunxin: Reporter Hu just talked about macroscopic, but also specific, which photos are how, including the flow of documentary photography, I hope that Guoxian will continue to do these topics in terms of methodology, how to view the relationship between inheritance and cutting-edge.

Xie Guoan: Regarding documentary photography, new photography has already passed in Europe and the Americas, and China has just begun. New photography is based on traditional documentary photography to take out the concept by the author himself, and express his own opinions on the picture, so it has become a new photography, which has become popular in Europe and the Americas, Mark Lubu has passed, China's documentary photography is not complete, Chinese documentary photography suddenly entered the new photography, this is what we said when we looked at the new photography that day. At the Central Academy of Fine Arts, we must understand the history clearly, and we must grasp the ins and outs of photography, so that you can do it. This concept should be discussed clearly, we will talk about the past, and everyone is not clear, so we think that this is the case. Traditional Chinese documentary photography is good, but it is a pity to lose it when China has not done enough and has not yet had a great social impact and photography. There is only one documentary photography in China that can be exchanged in the world. We haven't reached that point to throw this away and do new photography, which leaves a big historical gap in Chinese photography. The process by which new photography evolved from traditional documentary photography.

Fang Su (Chairman of Hubei University Photography Association, Professor of Hubei Academy of Fine Arts): The reason why we can engage in this photography, creation and teaching today, must be the most direct influence of documentary photography to get to this point, you look back to see what influenced you to do this work, now think of a large number of classic documentary photography works in our minds. I had a curator who once talked about and he couldn't understand this definition. He believes that the essence of photography is documentary, neither can we trace the past nor look forward to the future, why do Chinese have to oppose documentary photography and a lot of photography? He said that photography is an act of documentary, including some classifications of Chinese photography exhibitions, and he also expressed some confusion. I think that Lao Zhou can do these concerns about society, I think not only a responsible photographer or responsible journalist can do it, we can clearly feel from Xi Jinping's speech at the symposium of literary and art workers that these works of Lao Zhou are in line with the current political climate. In his speech, Xi Jinping first emphasized that a literary and artistic worker or a media worker must first have a responsibility to society, to look down, the camera down, and he has a negative attitude towards the nihilistic, ethereal, diseaseless moaning artistic expression methods of the past, and the low-level vulgar expression methods. It can be seen from the methods of literary and art practitioners now, I saw the program of this year's Spring Festival Literary and Art Gala the day before yesterday, and I can also feel that of course, it is not the final. I have always been thinking about a question, what does your so-called concern for society, this sense of mission, have to do with art? Before I could think clearly, a group of students engaged in art was already doing it. I remember very well that three of our graduation exhibitions last year were very direct, and their worries about social phenomena were directly reflected in their design works. I remember very well, one was domestic violence, one was PM2.5, participated in both sides of the strait, and the other was gay among college students, this one was very bold. Including teacher Wu Jianguo, after they went, they saw a large group of films and said that this kind of thing can only be exhibited in the Academy of Fine Arts, and it is a girl doing it, which is actually a documentary process. As a 20-year-old girl, she will definitely not study what is documentary language, what is a decisive moment, she certainly won't, she is a kind of record, but I think it is very authentic, she has done surveys and interviews across many colleges, she makes friends with these men and women, I told her that this thing can be continued, and the topic of homosexuality in China can continue to be done, she said how to do it, I said I don't know how to do it, but my intuition feels that this is a narrative point, It can reveal some phenomena of society. One is PM2.5, one is domestic violence, that belongs to photography, very exquisite, portraits, from these two points, the concern for society, the examination of social phenomena has not only been the artist's disease-free moaning, in the past many works were worried, helpless, now many works, especially photography professional works, these four or five years can gradually reflect the concern for society, to a student's vision of society. Of course, we still emphasize some, if it is pure journalism, pure documentary and other works must be very cautious, because our school is not a school of media majors, to build a theoretical system, if you want to do it, you must do it very strongly, in graduate students to do this, undergraduate students do not.

These exhibitions by Zhou Guoxian are to add some of our motivation to see society, see the world, and analyze society, especially for our students, there are too many metaphysical thinking in thinking, and this kind of thing can make art education and art image education diluted somewhat, so that they can feel that photography has some such real ways to face life in artistic expression. Still others are doing it.

Host Ding Zunxin: Teacher Fang talked about social responsibility and the ontology of photography from the perspective of the college, and my experience is that documentary photography should pay attention to society, pay attention to the way of attention, pay attention to the subject matter, pay attention to all aspects, and it cannot be said that non-documentary things do not pay attention to society. Academic and academic practices have their value. I would like to invite Chairman Peng Niansheng.

Peng Niansheng (famous photographer): Today I mainly studied and studied three Academy Award theorists. I studied the exhibition of the national dedication. We would like to thank Zall Bookstore for giving our photographers a chance, a chance to meet, an opportunity to communicate, an opportunity to learn. I saw the exhibition of Guoxian for the second time, and the first time was in Pingyao the year before last, his "Bian Dan". According to the current fashionable words, the exhibition is very down-to-earth and reflects the lives of the people. Xie Guoan's successor is at least a reflection of the living conditions in Wuhan. The state of civilian life, a lot of things are disappearing. Wuhan's slogan now is that every day is different, there are many things disappearing, there used to be a bamboo bed array, now it is gone, we are native to Wuhan, and now we can't see it. The pier recorded by Mr. Kuni Xian I feel will disappear sooner or later. This kind of documentary value, literary and historical value, and cultural value are all worthy of going deeper and doing a good job. Your point is very good, now the photographer participates in a meeting is either a mobile phone or a camera, everyone is shooting, but how do you jump out in this process, your topic selection, set this shooting point is very good. Wuhan people, social phenomena, living conditions are all worth filming, some of the inside, now should be demolished, should be transformed, these things are very original recorded, this is a very meaningful, documentary, historical value, the state to insist on this point well, to do the extreme. Now there are many temptations of photography, it is impossible to cover everything, it is impossible to shoot everything, you just do this, just do Wuhan's city culture, do it to the extreme, absolutely leave a mark in the history of photography, the history of photography in Wuhan, and the history of Chinese photography.

In art, after all, you are a photographer, from the perspective of going to a photographer, how to make it fine and specialized, it is also worth improving. I looked at the photos of the exhibition, and there were not many that were impressed, some of which can be selected and selected very classic photos. Of course, we have this problem, the things we shoot are reluctant to discard, a certain theme is specialized, and the flat burden is done carefully. In terms of the presentation of the exhibition, as not an ordinary photographer, as a very sacred photography exhibition, do pictures must be exquisite, I think some of them are not exquisite, some of them are not exquisite, after all, it is presented as a work, it must be exquisite, I have a lot of contact with artists, art painters for their own frames, what frame is used is more and comparative, we have to learn from it. The work should be selected as a classic, and the framing of the work should be more exquisite.

Sun Wei (Wuhan photography critic): After the photo of Zhou Guoxian's "Four Notes on Fusheng" came out, he didn't see his works, found his Weibo, went to find Xian'anfang, but found that it was no longer there. These photos were taken by him in 09, he is not ostentatious, natural and long, laying out the years, analyzing the story, his lens language is not like many people, everyone is dancing equipment, today change this, tomorrow change that, find a strange angle, find a force, is there another way to say something very calmly? My feeling today is that it is level with the subject, equal eye level with the subject, without pitch and tilt; The second is flat, many are tensionless pictures, this is the characteristic of his choice of lens, he said that his lens is medium focus, use medium focus to shoot Hanzheng Street, a lot of guts, is to find this feeling, is such an effect. Every picture of him is very, very calm, although the life of the people under Hanzheng Street and the bridge is something that seems very backward today, he is carefully showing that these heavy manual workers use their own way of working to feed themselves and their families, to maintain a kind of human dignity, I think this is the point that Zhou Guo dedicated himself, his positioning is set by himself, criticism, praise, or denial, it doesn't matter, what do you think you should do, whether to change it is a matter of your choice. The deepest feeling is the section of Xian'anfang, the picture of 09 years, now demolished, this is the historical value, that group of photos is also medium focus, the picture is this feeling. Regarding Jiqing Street, I once had dinner there with my friends, and watched their performances be very exaggerated and very intense, which is not in your picture, is it also related to the camera? is something to consider. Some of them don't have to be suspicious to do, very serious to show a thing to the fullest, you didn't do it, this aspect needs to be further improved.

Zhang Gang (General Manager of Wuhan Relay Media Advertising Company): Today I saw Zhou Guoxian's photos, as an amateur photography culture, his photos are so refined and specialized, I am still a little surprised. Everyone says French photographers, I think of a French political theorist named Meng Tian, he said that "everything that happens in the world is related to me", this means that all the optimistic things and good things that happen in the world are related to him, but mainly that all the disasters that occur in the world are related to him. This means that mankind as a whole, as a molecule of mankind, the disasters that occur in each place are deeply related to their own vital interests. From this point of view, documentary photography should grasp the mainstream of reflecting deep disasters or people's economy and people's livelihood from the subject matter, and some good things and some happy events do not mean that it is not the scope of documentary photography, but its main vein and main branch should reflect the people's economy and people's livelihood. From this point of view, Zhou Guoxian's theme is well grasped and should continue to be done.

I mention two deficiencies: First, turning color photography into black and white works is not necessarily successful, maybe your color works are more vivid, black and white photography should have a black and white thinking, what kind of color, what color level red uses after achromatic, there should be more rigorous training, in order to finally master black and white photography, black and white photography is a highly abstract form of expression. Xie Guoan has been doing black and white photography almost all his life to be able to do this. Second, in terms of photographic language, as an amateur photographer, I feel a little surprised when I see your work today, and I feel that I have done a good job, and we need to raise a little higher from the perspective of judgment and analyze your work from a relatively high standpoint. On the surface, Hanzheng Street, Jiqing Street, Xian'an Fang, and Water People are still very well expressed, but take a look at Xie Guoan's works, his things are very plain, more plain than your photographic language, if you express labor, it is not so exaggerated performance, in life every word and deed, very casual action can express a very deep thing. Your performance is superficial, his performance is shown in the bones of Wuhan people, showing the bones of Wuhan people, and the things in the bones cannot be seen on the surface, but can be felt. This far-fetched comparison may not be fair to Master Xie, one is five or six years, the other is a lifetime experience, and I mainly use this method to illustrate this issue. With your hard work, you will definitely be able to do this with Teacher Xie.

Host Ding Zunxin: Black and white photography does not mean that the color is converted to black and white is over, the conversion effect is sometimes not good, you have to have black and white thinking, you must have black and white language, black and white techniques, not that color is finished when it turns black and white. Now there is also this tendency, black and white is more elegant than color, in fact, not necessarily.

Yu Shengwen (photographer): All the people here are seniors and teachers, Zhou Guoxian and I are both members of the board eye shadow club, but I saw the works of Jiqing Street for the first time, and the topic of Biandan was the most complete and in-depth, and judging from the pictures on display, I felt that it was not enough. I am a native of Wuhan, and I used to live in Lifen across the street from Xian'anfang, so I know it very well, and I have taken a lot of photos there, and there are many things that he has not photographed. Jiqing Street is the same, feeling that there are many shortcomings and regrets, and it is not mature enough. In terms of visual language expression, the teachers have also said a lot just now, and there are indeed many areas that need to be improved. But a very valuable point, now Wuhan sinks down to shoot Wuhan city is indeed not much, very few, like Lao Zhou to shoot a special topic "Bian Dan " for several years as a day less, I have also filmed such a similar feature as Lao Zhou, I filmed for a year, and then it is very difficult to shoot down, it is indeed a very hard thing, very difficult to do.

Jia Liancheng (Chairman of Wuhan Photographers Association): These four topics, which all journalists have photographed before him, many people have filmed, but no one insists on it like him.

Yu Shengwen: There are many people who shoot Bian Dan very much, but there are very few people who shoot as deeply as he does, and there is no second person who shoots deeper than him. What Lao Zhou needs to improve is mainly in terms of visual language, which requires further efforts and further improvement, which is even more perfect. Wuhan Board Eyeshadow Meeting, we hope that more people in Wuhan will pay attention to the city of Wuhan and photograph the city of Wuhan. Wuhan is now full of people taking pictures with cameras, and you can see people with cameras everywhere you go, but more people are taking pictures of some scenery, even clouds, and some aesthetics, without any thoughts, without their own observations. We hope that there will be more focus on the culture and history of Wuhan as a history to record, especially Wuhan is now undergoing an era of great change, and these people are especially needed to invest. Wuhan Plate Eye Shadow Club now has more than ten people, from a few people at the beginning to more than ten people now, now there are many people willing to join, the momentum is very good, especially Teacher Xie Guoan, you have someone after you.

Jia Xiaoxia (Deputy Editor-in-Chief of People's Photo News): I entered the photography industry relatively late, all of you here are seniors and teachers, I came this time to thank Teacher Zhou for giving me such an opportunity to learn. The People's Photography Newspaper circle knows that it has always been based on news and documentary, and has played a certain role in promoting the development of documentary photography in China in the last century, and we have also launched a large number of excellent photographers of documentary photography, such as Xie Hailong, who just mentioned, have had a large volume on our page, at that time I had not yet come to the photo newspaper, nor did I enter the photography circle. With the continuous growth of the photography team, with the continuous popularization and improvement of photographic equipment, our team is growing, from the perspective of my work, I think the group of documentary photography has not developed with the development of the objective conditions of photography and has the vigorous development we imagine, there are many reasons, of course, there are utilitarian, photographers impetuous, photography media leadership and driving force also has certain problems.

The documentary photography of Mr. Zhou that emerged this time made it very rare for me to see the persistence and persistence of a grassroots photographer. Documentary photography, since the invention of photography in 1836, photography and recording have been inseparable from urban processes and urban development, Mr. Zhou aimed his lens at Wuhan, with regional characteristics of the bottom citizen group in Wuhan, whether it is the flat dan of Hanzheng Street, or the citizens of Xian'anfang, as well as some hard-working artists in the big stall, the subject of the shooting has the perspective of civilians. Of course, this civilian does not mean the poor, it is a civilian, and this civilian perspective reflects the civilian feelings of Teacher Zhou Guoxian as a grassroots photographer. These civilians constitute the most basic cornerstone of Wuhan's social development and urban process, and are also the backbone of the city. They are at the bottom of society, and their joys, sorrows and living conditions are also very characteristic aspects of the city's development. Teacher Zhou Guoxian aimed his lens at this unique group, which also reflected his civilian perspective and civilian care, and was also the biggest essential feature of documentary photography, which is record and documentary. Speaking of documentary photography, just now everyone mentioned the difference between reportage photography and documentary photography, and everyone also talked about the works of Mr. Zhou Guoxian, which are more similar to documentary reports and special reports, and use traditional and classic documentary photography techniques while documentary reports and feature reports. I remember that in the previous paragraph we published an article on documentary photography, photography critic Bao Kun has a unique point of view that I agree, talking about the difference between reportage photography and documentary photography: reportage photography emphasizes authenticity, and documentary photography can be regarded as a creation under literary thinking. In the four thematic documentary photography of teacher Zhou Guoxian, more reflect the characteristics of special reports, literary creation thinking should have storytelling, picture stories should have development, climax, teacher Zhou Guoxian's documentary photography works reflect more close, plain, but in the process of image conflict and image development lack of some climactic things. This is where Teacher Zhou Guoxian should improve in the future.

The documentary value of Mr. Zhou Guoxian's works, his social contributions and historical materials are also self-evident. In the current Internet era, how can our works exert greater social value? This is a problem that both documentary photographers and other categories of photographers should pay attention to today. In addition to participating in some exhibitions, holding some exhibitions, participating in some competitions, or opening seminars in the photography industry, whether you can get out of the photography circle, have a relationship with the cultural department, publicity department and other groups or social classes in the society, and bring the exhibition to more Wuhan citizens, your main record is the bottom group of Wuhan society, can you let these people also participate in this exhibition, so that this exhibition can play a greater social role. In the Internet era, we not only want to exhibit in the photography circle, but also go to more social groups through Weibo and WeChat, and can also reflect the greater social value of the work.

Ding Zunxin: Zhou Guoxian's works embody a civilian feeling, which is very important, and as for newsworthiness and documentary photography, this issue can be studied. She mentioned how this exhibition can go out of society and expand its impact, which is worth considering. I am good at summarizing because I listen carefully and record in detail, these masters are indeed rare, they have not been together for many years, everyone has talked for so long, the words are not finished, Professor Fang's exhibition, we can also do a seminar.

The rationality, emotion and aesthetics of documentary photography are the functions of three aspects, but among the three, I think that emotion is the intermediary and link between reason and aesthetics. I advocate civilian feelings, what kind of feelings you have for your subject, on the one hand, it helps you sublimate rationality, Zhou Guoxian really raised his attention to the lives and destinies of these ordinary people during the filming process, Xian'anfang, he is aware that it is about to disappear, these things that are about to disappear are the best food for documentary photography, but only after emotional investment, this rationality can be better sublimated and improved. Emotions include two aspects, one is the photographer's emotional investment, one is the subject's emotional grasp, I agree with Sun Wei, his group of films are very mature, the artists of Jiqing Street shot me more moved, the reason why I am willing to curate with him, I just think that Jiqing Street is very good, at first I didn't read the text description, and then I read the text description and felt that these people are really not easy, these people really deserve our respect, their life experience, life experience is very chilling. Many of them are graduates of art colleges and universities, some are actors of literary and industrial groups, some are very young children, some are old people, one is the dedication to art, the other is for a living, and even have to sing and beat the back of local tycoons and second-rate children, the stories contained in these plots I feel very touching after watching them. The most important enlightenment that Zhou Guo dedicates to us is the emotional investment and the grasp of the subject's emotions, which is an intermediary for the photographer's rational sublimation and aesthetic grasp, a key link, in addition to the old Tongcheng is a big head, there is a shirtless drinker in the middle of the picture, in addition to the fact that it is not far or close, the distance of the middle scene, is not very prominent in the use of photographic language, but he grasps the flat dan or the people on the water, the artists selling on Jiqing Street, he grasps the emotions of these people very well. His characteristic is to really photograph these people as his own family, and I think this is his most successful point, which is also our very successful in doing photo stories and reportage photography. Only in this way can you truly show their real lives and their fate, and such works have the value of passing on to future generations. As a curator, I would like to thank all critics, artists, and sociocultural scholars, our seminar was very successful, very rich, with considerable theoretical and academic value, and at the same time has certain practical significance, and Chairman Jia would like to thank you on behalf of Wuhan Photographers Association.

Jia Liancheng (Chairman of Wuhan Photographers Association): I have already said a lot of ideas when I delivered my speech at the opening ceremony, taking this opportunity, Wuhan Photographers Association participated in this exhibition mainly by Mr. Ding, who as a director of the Photographers Association, we planned and participated in this exhibition, and I was also fortunate to participate in this seminar today through this exhibition, listening to the equivalent of a national-level exhibition seminar, which included two teachers from afar, Teacher Zhou and the editor of the news documentary of the People's Photography Daily. In our minds will always be our territory and home, many of our authors' excellent works are published through the People's Photography Newspaper, and three masters of the China Photography Theory Golden Image Award participated in the seminar, and several were university deans and professors, the level and personnel of our seminar participation, the level of photography theory is no less than a seminar with a national background. Because there is such a high-level seminar, in Hubei Province, Wuhan City for many years have not conducted such a level of seminar, have not heard and participated, so it is another enlightenment for me, because after all, there is no change, in the province I am the vice chairman of the third term, in the city I served as the 12th vice chairman did not change, give me an encouragement, our future development of photography in Wuhan, Hubei must be sorted out through such a level of seminar. In addition to the propositional composition of the photography in Wuhan City, Hubei Province that I see with my eyes, our competitiveness in the country is getting lower and lower, and this lower and lower is to arouse the vigilance of several vice chairmen, those who are stationed at the meeting, and those who have held a certain level, and we must pass on this voice. All the views in today's seminar are a guide and prompt for Zhou Guoxian personally, and an inspiration for him, but more publicity in online media will be an important reference, guidance and inspiration for many documentary photographers in Wuhan, Hubei Province, which will attract our attention. On behalf of the organizers, I would like to take this opportunity to sincerely and sincerely thank you for your presence and express my personal gratitude.

Zhou Guoxian: I really only have thanks, the biggest gain of this exhibition is today's seminar, which has taught me a lot, and has a lot of inspiration and inspiration for my future development.

【Related Links】:

"Four Notes on Fusheng - Zhou Guoxian Documentary Photography Exhibition" was exhibited at Zall Bookstore

Media coverage of Wuhan Zall Art Museum's "Four Notes on Floating Life - Zhou Guoxian's Documentary Photography Exhibition"