▲ The whole view of Li Song Da Village 2006
Li Fan, whose real name is Li Qiang, was born in Dingbian, Shaanxi In 1959, he studied painting in his early years. From 1985 to 1987, he studied in the Photography Department of Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts, from 1992 to 2000 he worked as an editor, journalist and freelance photographer in Xi'an, Beijing, Yinchuan and Yulin, and taught at the Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts in 2001.
In the past 30 years, he has gradually filmed series of photographic works such as "Rural Life in Northern Shaanxi" (1981 to present), "Northern Landscape" (1985 to present), "Far Away" (1987 to present), "Passing" (1983 to present) and so on. His hometown video series narrates his personal experience, in-depth talk about the points and aspects of life.
He has published the collection "Homeland" (2008), "Portrait of Landscape" (1998), "Li Fan's Modern Photography Collection" (1991), the teaching book "Special Topics and Experimental Images" (2004), the illustrated collection "Scenery of Hometown as the Origin" (2014), and "The Back of the Earth" (2011). At the end of 2008, he resumed painting and created a series of oil paintings and ink paintings in the "Northern Homeland". He has held solo exhibitions in many places at home and abroad, and participated in group exhibitions dozens of times.
Azad (French photographer, "Jose" judge) said in a letter to Li Fan: "You are a photographer with deep humanistic feelings, and through your works, I have a deeper understanding of your country and people.
—Excerpt to Azad (Letter to Lee)
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Grandmother 1983
Fan Xue The Woman Who Watched the Drama in 1984
Newlywed Li Mingguo and Zhao Yu'e in 1986
The little elm tree in front of Li Huailin's door in the summer of 2006
Li Songdan 1983
Li Song Ridge on the dog kennel on the shore of the ridge 2005
Dingbian Wang Panshan Farmer on the Set 1983
Lee Song Dae Lee Myung Wing's Oh Na 2006
Chicken Coop on the Cliff 2014
Shaanxi Dingbian 1990
Among the sheep was a Yan Shu Li Jian Da 2005
Jia County Assembly Ping Cellar Radish 1995
Li Kundan gives his grandmother a grave in 2004
Qingjian AnjiaPan Kangtou's Taoist Sentiments 2007
Dingbian Oil House for the Elderly Opened in 1985
The Old Man and the Land dingbian in Shaanxi 1981
Dingbian The old salt worker of Huamachi in 1984
Dingbian Feng Di Pit Digging Potato 2004
Cornfield Dingbian Shilisha, Shaanxi 2002
From 1981 to the present, I have intermittently, consciously or unconsciously photographed the characters and life moments around my hometown in the Baiyu Mountains, a small mountain village called Li Jiaodan, and a certain time and space in northern Shaanxi and northwestern Jin. Most of the people and things in these photos come from people living in loess soil thickness of tens of meters.
Li Jiao Da is a very ordinary small natural village in the hinterland of Baiyu Mountain on the Loess Plateau. On days when there is no snow in winter, from a distance, Li Jiao's tower is all loess, with earth cliff faces, earth kilns, earthen courtyards, earthen walls, earth sheep pens, earth ash circles (and thatched toilets), and soil dog nest chicken nests, like an unearthed ancient village site. The construction of all these soils is so harmonious with the rolling mountain beams and ditches, and even the scattered elms and almond trees planted by the ancestors are so natural.
That's my hometown, where I spent most of my childhood. It was my grandmother's narration and blood relationship with Li Gaodian that continued my feelings for Li Jiaodan, and it was also my grandmother who made me understand the landscape and wind in the mountains, the sophistication of people and even the origin of people, and it was also my grandmother who opened up this innocent and thick world for me.
My hometown image is not a commercial photography, nor is it a report on an event, or why the feature photography, it is a lengthy video narrative with my life experience, in the shooting of my hometown image, I can deeply talk about the points and aspects of my own personal experience. Therefore, I don't care about the impact of the proliferation of digital imaging technology and means on photographers like me who are serious about themselves. At the same time, I grasp the subjectivity and folk nature of the hometown image, and do not depart from the witness and time and space of the image.
No matter what progressive ideas and concepts are affected, I feel that my heart is still traditional, just like I have to go back to my hometown every holiday to take pictures, including stepping on the thick loess soil, even if it is a soak of urine, there is a kind of thorough comfort, sleeping on the soil kang of my hometown, in the quiet night of the yellow land, I think of the complicated multimedia art that has been leading for a while, compared to my fresh, black and white photos that have no clear value orientation are difficult to squeeze into the forefront of the strange images, but I am pleased It can permanently carry the truth of my heart. (Text/Li Fan)
Extended reading: Guo Lanying, Wang Erni, Yun Enfeng, Wang Xiangrong's "Shandan Dan Blossoms Red and Bright" is rare to see!
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