Ding Ronghua / Wen
In my photo album, there are a few old photos, which I took from childhood to youth in Langzhong Photo Studio. The clear silhouette, the clean picture, the ancient and simple style, and the high-quality portrait photos have evoked many warm and beautiful memories. In the depths of my memory, langzhong photo studio, from the 1950s to the 1980s, at the mouth of Yanshikou on Neidong Street. In the three facades facing the street, various photographic equipment is stored at the counter, and the window is posted with exquisite and vivid photos of people and cityscapes to attract customers.
The earliest photograph I took was taken in 1958, when my third uncle returned from the Qiqihar army to visit his relatives and get married, and when the whole family sent him back to the army, he took it at the Inner East Street Photo Studio.
Old family portrait photos from the 1950s
On the day of the photo, Grandma, my three aunts, an aunt, my parents, my second uncle, their daughters, three uncles, four uncles, and my brother and I all came to the photo studio in what they thought was the best and cleanest clothes. I was in kindergarten, wearing a floral cloth dress, a pair of strappy cotton pants, two horn braids on my head, and my second uncle's daughter was next to me, next to my brother.
The photographer asked each of our three children to hold an apple in their hands, and sitting in the middle was Grandma, who held her little sister in her arms, and her aunts all wore hats or wrapped in spars. My father and second uncle were wearing tulle coats, my aunt and fourth uncle were wearing Zhongshan suits, my third uncle was wearing military uniforms, and my third aunt was wearing a checkered flower cloth coat next to me. She was still a bride, and her hair was shiny with pine-scented water soaked with shavings. The whole family walked into the photo hall in front of the house, the father issued a ticket in front of the door, and the second uncle led us along the courtyard. From the front shop to the photography room in the backyard, there is a courtyard of 300 or 400 square meters in the middle, and the yard has winding paths, arch bridges, lawns, flower beds, small animals made of bamboo and trees, etc., which are very elegant.
We waited outside the photo studio and heard the photographer's name before entering the studio. The second aunt, the third aunt and our little children sat in the front row, the grandmother and aunt and mother sat in the second row, and the uncle and my father and brothers stood in the back. In the background is Beijing's Beihai Park. When taking pictures, the photographer covered his head with a black cloth to shoot the scene, and after focusing, the photographer stood next to the landline, holding the pneumatic ball shutter in one hand, adjusted our sitting position, and took the earliest and most precious group photo of our family.
I still remember that in the afternoon of the Dragon Boat Festival in 1965, my classmate Zhang Guangrong invited me to take a photo, and the two of us went to the photo studio to take a one-inch bust photo and spent 0.26 yuan. There was a negative in one set, two pictures, and one for each of us. In 1974, when we graduated from Langzhong Middle School and high school, the school first asked the teacher of the photo studio to send the school to take a class graduation photo, and then the students met in pairs to take pictures at the photo studio. Students from different communes take pictures, students from different dormitories, male students, and female students, which is the season when I took the most photos from childhood to adulthood. In the winter of 1981, I visited my relatives for the first time from The Tibetan Huilang, and after the Spring Festival, I had to leave home and invited my brothers and sisters to the photo studio to take two photos. Then in early 1984, my father took my son standing on an arch bridge to take a one-year photo and sent it to me working in Lhasa, and I recognized it at a glance in the courtyard of the Langzhong Photo Studio.
After the founding of new China, the relatively low price of photo studios allowed photos to enter the homes of ordinary people. Taking a one-inch photo is 0.26 yuan, washing a 1-inch photo is 7 cents, and taking a 2-inch photo is 0.34 yuan, and this price was maintained until the 80s of the last century. Gou Hongyuan and Tu Yongzhi are famous technicians in Langzhong Photo Studio, who are mainly good at shooting portraits, and many of the works placed in the window of the photo studio are their works.
Photo studio portraits pay attention to the use of light, from the photo to see the face to have triangular light, eye light, behind the hair to have an arc light, so taking 1 inch photos has always been the basic skill of the photography industry. If it is a bust, the photographer also has to move a few shade lights, there are backlights, front metering lights, eye lights, and background lights, and look at the light effect in the viewfinder, as well as the position of the avatar in the viewfinder, etc., everything is correct before pressing the shutter.
After the 1950s, the negatives of the photo studio were film. After rinsing the bottom plate, a special revision technician uses pencil refills of varying thicknesses to revise the bottom plate of the medicinal film to adjust the light level and brightness on the negative. This is a professional technology, not easy to learn. After film sensitivity, but also understand the darkroom production, filming, development, fixing, enlargement, photo paper after the photosensitive is development, fixing, washing, glazing and other processes, which link is not done well, will not present a good work. After the opening of the photo studio, it operates in strict accordance with the process flow, and is highly respected by customers with its exquisite light source, color tone and post-production technology.
In the early 1980s, my husband bought a 120 black-and-white red plum camera, and a year later, a 135 black-and-white seagull camera, which was later replaced by a 135 phoenix color camera, and then a digital camera. Buy your own film to take pictures, and then go to the photo studio to develop them into photos.
For many years, unconsciously, the old photo studio on Inner East Street suddenly snubbed in front of the door. Until one day, the photo museum closed down for auction, the past of the state-run photo museum appeared in front of the eyes, and there were many reluctances and memories in my heart, and I had the idea of putting down the historical record of langzhong photography industry.
The development of Langzhong's photography industry is inseparable from a figure who plays a role in inheriting the past and enlightening the future in langzhong photography. Gou Hongyuan, also spelled Pengfei, was born in 1915 in Hexichang, Langzhong County. Before the age of 15, he attended a private school in River Creek Field. At the age of 16, he went to Langzhong County to learn art, and studied photography techniques with Wu Bozhen (then a senior photographer in Langzhong).
Group photo taken by the Langzhong Chamber of Commerce in the 32nd year of the Republic of China (1943).
In 1937, Gou Hongyuan was sponsored by his relatives to buy the most advanced photographic equipment and equipment at that time, and founded the first photo studio in Langzhong at that time in the courtyard of the original "Galaxy Zhai" in Wumiao Street, Langzhong Ancient City (next to the present-day Shouchang Silk Cotton Mill), named "Shuguang Photo Studio". Subsequently, Gou Hongyuan took the first panoramic photo of the park in the ancient city of Langzhong, leaving a precious cultural relic. In 1942, during the four bombing raids by the Japanese invaders' aircraft, a large number of houses were destroyed, and the casualties were heavy, and the scene was very tragic. The provincial government and the special bureau, as well as the county government, sent officials to the site to investigate.
At that time, Gou Hongyuan was commissioned by the county government to go deep into the bombing site many times to take photos, and many bodies were mutilated and their heads and torsos were separated. At that time, the camera depth of field was not enough to shoot large scenes, Gou Hongyuan in order to truly restore and record the scene scene, he used a triangular photography frame to shoot in sections, and then synthesized in the darkroom. Because the photo compositing scene is seamless, it is highly praised by the authorities. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Gou Hongyuan was repeatedly hired by the "Sichuan-Shaanxi-E" Appeasement Office, which had been located in Langzhong County, to take many precious photos of the War of Resistance.
Photos of the scene after the bombing of the ancient city of Langzhong
In 1956, a wave of industrial and commercial public-private partnerships swept across the country. In June of that year, Ye Shuren, Niu Chongguang (Chongguang Photo Studio), Gou Hongyuan (Shuguang Photo Studio), Wu Boyu, Chen Zhaorong and others, owners of several private photo studios in Langzhong, jointly established the first public-private photo studio in Langzhong (later with the development of the country, it was gradually transformed into Langzhong China-operated photo studio), with Gou Hongyuan as the manager.
In 1967, under the instructions of Tao Zhu, director of the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the state-run photo studio in Langzhong County was responsible for developing and printing Chairman Mao's photos for distribution. Since the leader's photo could not make a mistake, Tu Yongzhi, Huang Shaorong, and Kong Xianghua went to the Chongqing Photo Studio to learn to develop and print Chairman Mao's photos. The Langzhong County State-run Photo Gallery was the only photo gallery in Nanchong at that time to print Chairman Mao's photographs.
During the Cultural Revolution, Gou Hongyuan's disciple Tu Yongzhi (Tu Xingming's father) served as the manager of the state-run photo studio. At that time, the photography business spread throughout the urban and rural areas, and the photo gallery sent photographers to various townships to tour the photography, which met the photographic needs of the peasant brothers and was well received by the masses. In 1979, Tu Yongzhi retired, and Zhu Huajun served as the manager of the photo studio. In 1981, Zhu Huajun adjusted the catering company, and Huang Shaorong took over as the manager of the photo studio. Manager Huang actively conformed to the development of the times, introduced new technologies, broadened business channels, and in 1983, began to officially use indoor light photography and color photography.
In 1987, the langzhong county state-owned photo studio purchased a magnolia color punching and expanding machine produced in Shanghai, and in 1990, it introduced and purchased a set of Japanese Norris 901 color printing equipment, which can produce more than 1,000 pieces per hour.
On February 28, 1991, the color expansion department of Langzhong Catering Service Company was opened, and more than 130 people attended the opening ceremony, including the secretary of the Langzhong Municipal Party Committee, the mayor, the directors of various bureaus, as well as representatives of the photography industry and representatives from 12 counties and cities in Shanghai, Chengdu, Guangyuan and Nanchong. Subsequently, the color expansion business covered Langzhong, Cangxi, Nanfang, Jiange County and other places, and urban and rural photo studios came to Langzhong to develop color photos. The business of Lang China's business is in full swing, with a significant increase in revenue and considerable profits and taxes.
In 1993, Huang Shaorong was transferred to the deputy manager of the catering company, and Gou Hongyuan's second daughter, Gou Sprite, was appointed as the manager of the state-run photo studio. In 1994, the enterprise implemented the lease contracting system. The photo gallery is contracted in two pieces, the old photo studio on Inner East Street is contracted by Gou Sprite, and the color expansion department next to the Langzhong Hotel is contracted by Tu Xingming. In 1998, the Langzhong Camp Photo Studio was restructured, and the employees bought out their working years and laid off their jobs. After 2001, the photo gallery was restructured again, and the original photo studio site was auctioned off. Subsequently, Tu Xingming established the first private photo studio after the restructuring, Yiyi Yaqian Photo Studio.
Yaqian Studio can also be said to be an abbreviation of the history of photography in Langzhong, from three generations of photography families. From Tu Yongzhi, Tu Xingming to Tu Yiping, it has gone through three stages: public-private partnership, state-run photo studio and private photo studio. From the original camera to the high-intelligence digital camera, from the hand-made darkroom printing photos to the high-intelligence bright room enlargement of the photo, it has experienced the ups and downs in the history of photography.
Driving Langzhong folk photography to a climax was Tu Xingming, who loved photography to the point of obsession. Born in August 1954 and living in an alley on Wumiao Street, he is a member of the Chinese Photographers Association, the Chinese Art Photographers Association, the Sichuan Photographers Association, the director of the Nanchong Photographers Association, the chairman of the Langzhong Photographers Association, and the 11th and 12th CPPCC members of Langzhong City.
Tu Xingming's "Brothers"
In 1985, Tu Xingming bought his own camera and often went to take pictures of the scenery after work and holidays. His debut novel, Gui, was published in Sichuan Workers Daily. When he was the chairman of the Municipal Photography Association, he opened a photography training class in Langzhong, and the Photographers Association had 168 members, including 18 provincial members, 5 national members, and more than 50 wedding dresses, photo studios, film and television productions.
Nowadays, photography and photography are no longer a common thing, and instead of photo studios are more and more individual photography and wedding photo studios, photographers will be seen in parks and by the river. Middle-aged and elderly people use tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of photographic equipment, and various types of "long guns and short cannons" are hung on their shoulders, making photography hot. The time has come when everyone is a photographer.