Original title: Photographer Yan Ming embarks on a long color journey to capture the traces of fireworks and human feelings scattered among the people - (Introduction)
"I don't have pleasing and sweet here" (theme)
Workers' Daily-China Workers' Network reporter Chen Junyu
Reading tips
Yan Ming, a photographer known for his black-and-white photography, published his first collection of color photography. Over the years, he has deviated from the exploration of documentary photography, and has paid more attention to the depth of vision and emotion in each work.
Yan Ming had to answer again and again, why did he "turn" from black and white photography to color photography?
In the past few years, Yan Ming, who was born in the 70s, is known for his black and white photography. "The choice of black and white or color photography is a free decision based on creative needs, not a rigid attachment to one form, nor does turning around means turning a back and breaking with it. None of my photographs are meant to be pleasing to the eye and sweet. Here's his answer.
The recently published Lost Wall (Guangxi Normal University Press) features Yan Ming's color photography. Hundreds of photos, divided into 4 chapters: Love, Lost Wall, Impermanence, and Weiyang. He also needs to explain repeatedly that the chapters are only for the sake of spacing, and that naming them is just a retreat. As for the time span of 5 years and the footprints of half of China, he is reluctant to say that time and distance are not the focus, and he has deviated from the exploration of documentary photography over the years, and pays more attention to the depth of vision and emotion in each work.
On the day of the interview with Yan Ming, Beijing ushered in the first snow of this winter, and he sighed "great" in the middle of the night. The night before, a book launch was held at a bookstore in Beijing, and the event was packed with readers. Yan Ming, who has not appeared in public for a long time, is a little restrained, sweating, and tells us about his observations of life, his thoughts on photography, and the beauty and poetry that fascinate him.
paradise
On May 20, 2020, after Yan Ming bought a new digital camera, he flew to Yinchuan, Ningxia. In recent years, he has spent most of his time taking pictures in the northwest. In Ningxia and Gansu, he was fascinated by the many ruins there.
In the dormitory of an abandoned cement factory in the northern suburbs of Shizuishan City, he photographed "The Sofa of Three Friends in the Cold". It was a sofa abandoned by the owner, and the pattern of pine, bamboo and plum on the backrest was clearly visible, but it was already pulped and dirty. When you look directly at the photo, you can feel the passage of time and the traces of your life, which once gave the owner support and warmth, and can only stay where you are when you move out......
Yan Ming loves the north, and he likes to run into the wilderness. If you ask him why, he will tell you that facing the open environment is energetic and happy. There are also those mud-covered paths, those stone steps without guardrails, and there may be traces of the ancients, all waiting for him to stop and discover.
In the northwest, those abandoned factories, family buildings, schools, parks, and temples are uninhabited, and most of them have no doors or windows. If there are nesting birds, there is not only the sound of the wind in the wilderness, but also the chirping of birds, desolate and lonely, but it is also a paradise.
For example, "Red Vine" was filmed in a long-abandoned factory area on the outskirts of Pingchuan District, Baiyin City, Gansu Province, with rows of tiled houses used for accommodation. Yan Ming went once in 2020, and the next year, like an old friend reunited, he would still be moved by the red vines painted on the walls of this empty room.
"This wall has left evidence of the master's love for life, and their family is ready to live here greatly, and this red vine is the hope for a better life. Yan Ming felt that this was worthy of admiration, and it was worth going back again.
Some readers think that Yan Ming's works are "desolate scenes, happy hearts". He saw it on the Internet and wrote it down, secretly rejoicing, and felt that this reader summed it up accurately.
Lost wall
Yan Ming was like an uninvited guest breaking into one building after another. The red vines and beauties painted on the wall, the sticky fly paper pasted on the wall, and the big characters written on the wall, are all the hopes of the original life, which have been dusted, pulped, cracked, and opened over time...... Yan Ming stopped, moved, shocked, and moved, and then faced with these "fireworks and human feelings become works of art in an immovable posture", press the shutter, and save those elapsed time.
As he put it, "I'm willing to pick up some drifting bottles that I don't know who they are, throw them back into the living water, and give them another ride." ”
"Wonderwall", translated as "Wonderwall" in English, is inspired by the song of the same name by the British band Oasis. In a strict understanding, the predecessors carved and placed many important and precious things on the wall. In addition to the function of the wall, it is also a medium to present emotions and aesthetics, and a super framework to wrap life. The remnant wall is not only fascinating about nostalgia, it can also spoil a part of the future.
Last spring, Yan Ming held an exhibition in Wuhan, and the series of works about "Lost Wall" was named "Breaking the Wall", and the exhibition poster was "Beauty". It was an abandoned distillery in Silver, with advertising paintings on the walls of the courtyard. It is speculated that the prototype of the beauty in the painting should be He Xiangu in the Eight Immortals, the walls are mottled and cracked, the colors are still the same, and the characters are still the same. Time never defeats beauty, and what is said is true. Faced with such an advertising painting in the countryside, Yan Ming was moved, "My heart is moved, this is one of my shooting standards." Those oriental cultures are still there, and they should be re-watched and re-watched. ”
Visiting every abandoned building, for Yan Ming, is like entering a new labyrinth, going against the direction of time, to open a blind box about time, "to pick up and discover again, this is a happy thing".
Depth
In early 2010, Yan Ming quit his job to become a freelance photographer. Since 2014, he has published many books such as "I Love This Romance That Can't Cry", "Chronicles of the Great Country", "The Wrinkled Child", "Yesterday's Hall" and many other works, which are loved by many readers who don't even know about photography.
The uncle who sniffs the flowers, Minnie Mouse who gets off work, the monkey who leaves the gate, the weathered Buddha statue, and the statue of the ancients who gave up their hands but lost the head on the neck...... Yan Ming's black-and-white film photographs are the accumulation of his years of going out, pouring his thoughts and attitudes into people's memories and praise.
The moment you press the shutter, it is an emotional impulse, but you need to make rational planning before going out. Weather factors, he ranked first, and then there were human geography, mountains and rivers, cultural relics, etc., as well as what attractions and characteristics of a certain place were.
For example, the photo "Peach Blossoms on Highway 66" is a scenic spot in Zhongwei, Ningxia, where the vegetation is scarce and the peach blossoms are fake, for tourists to take pictures and check in. Some readers left a message after reading it, saying that they were moved by the stubborn peach blossoms. But this is not Yan Ming's original intention, "It is people who grow stubbornly, and a heart that makes a fortune through rural tourism." ”
There are also some such works, scattered in the photo collection, and if you are not careful, you may miss it, but Yan Ming is willing to tell it again and again, and he records those stubbornness and wishes that want to live a better life.
The photographic anthology "I am a child brought up by my grandparents" published at about the same time as "Lost Wall" is a post-90s photographer Wu Wei picking up a camera, from the old house to his hometown, tracing and recording the traces of his grandparents' lives little by little...... "Wu Wei is a rare affectionate person in the world. Don't be afraid, her past will not lose to the future. Yan Ming returned to his home in the south from snowy Beijing, participated in an online conversation, and said at the end of the live broadcast.
The affectionate person Yan Ming hides behind the photo, pours out his heart and lungs, treats sincerely, but refuses to conform to the crowd, and each work is his own attitude and thinking.
Source: China Workers' Daily