Recently, this set of pictures has been on the hot search again, and it has been amazing again...
When I saw the young Yang Liping, I was still moved by the sense of wild power and unadorned beauty in her.
Looking at the entire internal entertainment, you can't find the same beauty with a strong sense of drift but full of vitality.
She held the white horse and looked back dismissively, the firmness in her eyes showing that she had the courage to dare to leave at any time.
Walking in the wilderness, she can be a ranger on horseback, and her alienated temperament in the city seems out of place in the city.
Her identity is a dancer, and the moment when she rises and dances is naturally indispensable in the capture.
She dances with the wind on the Great Wall, the skirt is blown out of the curves of her body by the wind, and freedom and freedom overflow the photo.
When taking this set of photos, photographer Xiao Quan described her.
"Yang Liping stood on the beacon with a huge cloth, at that moment, a majestic qi penetrated from the top of her head to the center of her feet, and she became a passage, that kind of power can easily stimulate something deep in your heart, that is, you will no longer think about what you are doing, just subconsciously press the shutter."
From the field to the city to the stage, photographer Xiao Quan has been taking pictures of Yang Liping for the past two or three decades, and the two have long had a tacit understanding that goes without saying.
Yang Liping also said, "When I reach the age of seventy or eighty, I will hide and not see you, but Xiao Quan is different, at that time I only asked Xiao Quan to take pictures of me." ”
Yang Liping and photographer Xiao Quan
What kind of divine is this photographer who can get such a high evaluation from Yang Liping?
He is known as the best portrait photographer in China, Xiao Quan.
Looking at his works again, I found that his lens not only recorded the youth images of an era, but also left the precious moments of that generation of stars before they exploded.
Gong Li can completely relax in front of his camera, Yu Hua's classic snow photos are from him, and the last image before Sanmao's suicide was taken by him...
Gong Li spanning 25 years
Sanmao's last image
It doesn't matter if you haven't heard of Xiao Quan, you must have seen these pictures.
In 1994, Xiao Quan was invited to shoot stills for Zhang Yimou's "Shake Ah Shake to Grandma's Bridge".
After finishing work, Xiao Quan captured Gong Li, who was reading the script while taking medicine, when she was only in her twenties.
Twenty-five years later, he filmed Gong Li again, on the set of the movie "Winning the Championship".
Lang Ping couldn't control his tears when he looked at the court, with tears in his eyes but firm eyes, he quickly captured this classic and precious moment.
Xiao Quan is very good at photographing women, he once said, the world is too big, I can be lucky enough to meet very few women, they were met by me intentionally or unintentionally, broke into my black box, and became characters in my video archive.
One of the ones that has to be mentioned is Sanmao, who completed his last photo book "Bird of Paradise" with Xiao Quan three months before committing suicide.
She is real in Xiao Quan's shots, but it is also cut.
Sanmao once said, "When I smile, my face is like a spring flower, it must be able to move people, no matter who he is." ”
She smiled at the little children passing by who were babbling and not yet able to speak.
Haggled with the boss, bought a bag for five dollars less, and was happy like a child.
She gave her red backpack to Xiao Quan, holding the newly bought large leather bag, and smiled contentedly at the camera.
In this way, Sanmao is hot, like a burning fire, and you can feel her heat just by seeing her.
However, she is also sad and broken in the camera.
She sat cross-legged on one foot on the uneven stone face, holding a cigarette, her brows furrowed and took a sip, and the oppressive atmosphere came to her face.
She stood in the street, carrying a backpack about half the size of her body, her eyes full of confusion and confusion, reflecting her state at that time.
Her brushstrokes touched that generation of literary and artistic youth, and the most classic one in the photo collection is the following one.
She was dressed in rags and sat barefoot on the ground, which is also what Sanmao looks like in the hearts of the public, free and uninhibited, casual and free.
Sanmao sighed after seeing this photo: "You know what? When I was a teenager and twenties, I traveled the world alone with short hair and a bag. More than twenty years later, I am still alone. Look, what a stubborn woman! This is a summary of my decades of wandering. ”
Xiao Quan once said that when he walked with Sanmao on the streets of Chengdu to shoot, he followed her for a few days as if witnessing her life.
Unexpectedly, this sentence became a saying, and Sanmao hanged himself a few months later, and the agreement between him and Sanmao to meet next summer became a regret on the calendar.
Sanmao's images have not only become her last precious record in the world, but also become a door for Xiao Quan to push open photography.
It was precisely because Yang Liping saw Sanmao's set of photos that she took the initiative to ask Xiao Quan to help her take pictures.
He can capture things that other photographers can't because he can discover qualities in his subjects that others overlook.
In the photo collection "Our Generation", Xiao Quan also recorded Dai Jinhua's appearance at the Beijing Film Academy.
Dai Jinhua's pioneering women's thinking also has a keen awareness of social phenomena and the courage to judge industry chaos with sharp words.
It has been likened to "the words are like a dart popping out of the chamber, whizzing in all directions, to hit and resist all kinds of flowing stones and flying sand." ”
She is a goddess in the literary and art circle, and she and Xiao are all old friends.
When Yi Zhi saw his work, he suddenly seemed to be awakened, and said to Xiao Quan, "We have known each other for so long, and you haven't taken a picture of me." ”
Xiao Quan picked up the camera, and when he told Yi Zhi that he had to earn money by writing TV series while helping her boyfriend who was going to school, he couldn't help but show sadness.
This face full of melancholy has become the most famous and the only one that has been left in everyone's hearts.
Although Xiao is widely known for shooting female portraits, he has also photographed many great directors and famous writers in their youth, Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Jiang Wen...
Standing in the snow, his brows slightly wrinkled, the corners of his mouth raised, staring at the camera like a scrutiny.
Jia Ping smoked at home with bare feet, his eyes revealed a trace of doubt and confusion, and he seemed to have not expected Xiao Quan to press the shutter at this time.
Shi Tiesheng and his wife were in the old house of the Lama Palace, saw his indifferent and comfortable gaze, and thought of his words.
"And look at the doubts of others like a ghost fire, and boldly go to your own night."
Why are they so honest about entrusting themselves to the people behind the camera?
This is called Don't take pictures of him, because it may be the best photo of your life.
With so many "most" names, how come there are so few doubts?
Flashes of light, back to basics
Xiao Quan, the recorder of a generation
Xiao Quan was originally an aerial mechanic, he looked at the earth from a high altitude, and the scene in front of him brought him a different visual experience.
Perhaps his sensitivity and obsession with images planted a seed in his heart at this time.
At that time, relying on his income in the army, he bought some photography magazines, and the more he read, the more enthusiastic his fascination with photography became.
After retiring from the military, he got together every day with poets, photographers, and artists, and was a proper literary and artistic youth.
When his father learned about his hobby, he took him 180 yuan, which was several months' salary in those days, and he bought his first camera, the Seagull camera, with a huge amount of money.
His first photograph was of his grandmother, and with his first photograph he established his subsequent photographic style, capturing moments of return to basics in flashes of light.
The camera became Xiao's way of connecting to the world, and it was also to help the person in the lens find his truest self.
In the summer of 1993, Xiao Quan became Mark Lübu's assistant in China, and he recorded the changes of China at that time with Mark.
At the same time, he secretly recorded Mark walking the streets of China, holding a camera and observing the world.
Mark Lueb once said that photography cannot change the world, but it can show the world.
And Xiao Quan's photography concept is that nature will be comfortable, and freedom will not be artificial, which is beauty.
It can be seen through Xiao Quan's works that the reason why he can take unique portraits is because others want to take unique portraits, they will find more angles and borrow props, and Xiao Quan is more focused on the characters themselves.
So he likes to shoot after getting close to the characters, for example, he will follow Sanmao to wander the streets for several days, and will accompany Wang Anyi to buy vegetables...
The stars are relaxed with him.
In his opinion, there is no difference between shooting ordinary people and shooting stars, because everyone has their own characteristics and shining points.
The children in front of the camera looked at the camera unguardedly.
A girl who wants to highlight the sense of responsibility of a college student, let her hair flow around, extend the knife to the camera, look non-aggressive, but have an unbreakable determined look.
Wu Haimei removed her prosthesis and pulled the empty right sleeve with her left hand, with no resentment or pain in her eyes.
Why does Xiao Quan love black and white photography so much?
It was not that he rejected color images, but was first influenced by his mentor and friend, his photographic leader, Mark Lubu.
Secondly, he believes that black and white are not monotonous colors, but can filter out excess colors through this simple form.
Xiao Quan in his youth
Photography is just a craft, but it is a privilege to witness the times.
Because of Xiao Quan's works, we are fortunate to see the golden age of those people, where young faces converge into a group portrait of an era.
Today, there are so many kinds of shooting machines, P-map software and filters, and fortunately someone has helped us retain the most precious parts of the image without retouching.
As photographer Jacob Aue Sobol says, it seems to me that only those images that are unpolished and gushing out really evolve from witness to existence.
And Xiao Quan used the image of a generation to witness and record such a existence.
Source:
Xiao Quan: Some of the coolest male gods and goddesses in China in the eighties and nineties were recorded in his works