Wu Dong
How does a person born in times of peace face suffering in the distance? Is it pity, sympathy, or numbness or indifference? Susan Sontag raised this question decades ago, and generations of photographers have also undergone creative changes in reflection, no longer focusing on impactful and tragic images as the primary pursuit, but more on connecting with people and expressing the brilliance of human nature.
In September 2021, the Shanghai Center for Photography launched the exhibition "Hope", which showcased the creations of 12 photographers based on the finalists of the Prix Pictet's 2019 theme "Hope".
In 1955, Edward Stainken, in his famous exhibition "The Human Family," placed a photograph of William Eugene Smith at the end of the exhibition. In that photo, Eugene Smith photographed the backs of his 4-year-old son Patrick and 2-year-old daughter Juanita, walking in the shadows through the grove toward a illuminated exit ahead.
William Eugene Smith, "Towards paradise garden" Image source: Network
At the time of this photograph, Eugene Smith was still recovering from a grenade injury, and he may have wanted to find some solace in photography, but given the context of the exhibition's era— its post-World War II, and the elements inside—the innocence of the child, the allegory of moving from the dark side to the light. It can also be interpreted as a symbol of humanity's renewed search for hope after World War II.
There are many photographs in the history of photography that evoke hope in people's hearts, and there are many photographers who try to express hope in photography. Dorothea Langer's Migrant Mother awakened American awareness of the Great Depression dilemma. In China, photographer Xie Hailong once aimed his lens at out-of-school teenagers in impoverished areas, and his "Big Eyes" photo in the 1990s became a household name, indirectly promoting the development of the "Hope Project".
Dorothea Lange, "Immigrant Mother" Image Source: Network
Xie Hailong's "Big Eyes" Source: Network
The "Hope" exhibition of the Shanghai Center for Photographic Arts, due to the institutional relationship (Prix Pictet adopts the nomination recommendation system rather than the submission commission), so that these shortlisted works are not necessarily due to the photographer and artist's understanding of the theme of "hope", but also because of the face of "hope" that the nominees and award institutions want to present. This consensus, like the way the theme of "hope" itself needs to resonate, depends on both the creator and the viewer.
Bangladeshi photographer Shahidur Alam's lens is aimed at Hajela, a woman who gives hope to others. Raped as a child, forced into prostitution and stealing, Hajela grew up to build an orphanage and adopt 30 children, teaching them to read, bathing them, catching bugs, and spending her life making the children as happy as possible. Alam photographed the little things in their daily lives.
Shahidur Alam, She Still Smiles series, Hajira bathing young children, 2014 this photograph is copyrighted by the various photographers and the Pictet Photography Award. Courtesy of Shanghai Center of Photography.
Irish photographer Ivo Pickett has been covering the campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria from 2017 to 2019, with his footage focusing on the victims of the war. Elder Nadira sits alone in the dusty rubble, excavators searching off-screen for her loved ones killed in the airstrike, looking desperate and resilient. In another photo, refugees receive relief supplies, and women wearing headscarves in the foreground and men lined up in the distance show the land's centuries-old religious history and suffering. Pickett's photographs have a clear center of focus, and these living beings are impressive.
Ivo Prikit, caliph's final series, Where Nadira Rasul watched Iraqi civil defense personnel dig up the bodies of her sister and niece from under houses in the old city of Mosul, who died in an airstrike in June 2017. 2017
Ivo Prikit, the Caliphate's Final Series, in which Iraqi civilians line up in the Mamun neighborhood to receive relief supplies, during which they are stranded west of the city of Mosul.
Another Irishman, Ross Macdonald, used typological methods to photograph prosthetics he had collected at the Jalalabad Hospital in Afghanistan, where their owners left their homemade prostheses after receiving better treatment. Macdonald uses a frontal perspective and a dull background to direct the viewer's attention to the prosthetics themselves in a portrait-like way. They naturally conjure up images of physical trauma, but the details, shapes and textures of the prosthetics also have a hint of humor, showing the owner's personality and hope for life.
Ross McDonald, Limb Stem Series, Limb Stem No. 16, 2012
These stories continue to tell the story of the conflicts and human dilemmas of specific regions that Western political discourse focuses on, and it still carries with it the pursuit of peace and happiness in universal values. But compared with the past, with the great changes in the media environment, more and more suffering is seen and used to, how does a person born in peace face suffering in the distance? This is obviously also a problem. Is it pity, sympathy, or numbness or indifference? Susan Sontag asked this question decades ago, and the photographs of these photographers have changed in reflection, and the expression of "hope" is one of the responses. They no longer regard the tragic picture with impact as the primary pursuit, but pay more attention to connecting with people and expressing the brilliance of human nature.
Ross McDonald, Limb Stem Series, Limb Stem No. 2, 2012
The understanding of "hope" in the exhibition can have multiple dimensions, which is both the will of the author and the will of the subject through the author's mouth. In Hajella's eyes, she wants her children to have a happy childhood; in Nadira's eyes, she wants to see the remains of her loved ones; in the eyes of those who have lost their legs, despite their pain, they also want to have a "special leg" of their own.
Rena Affendi photographed a village in transylvania, Romania, that preserves farming traditions. She uses a lot of backlit natural light sources and square formats, adding a sense of nostalgia and picture stability. This is a kind of beautification, which shows the good impression that Affendi wants to leave, but in the process of global agricultural industrialization, these photos also have a utopian illusion. There are no young people in the village, all old people and children. Hope may be the extravagance of Rena Affendi's opposition to the trend, but also the belief of the old people, who hope that this traditional method of labor can be passed on.
Rena Affendi, Transylvania: Building the series on the Meadows, Ain Petric and his wife Maria Flaga teach their neighbor, seven-year-old Adriana Dontas, to peel corn for cattle feed. Maramureş, Romania. 2012
Rena Affendi, Transylvania: Building the series on the meadows, 12-year-old Andre Rose watching his father brew the traditional fruit brandy Palinka. Maramureş, Romania. 2012
Luca Foria explores the ways in which man and nature interact, traveling around the world to collaborate with scientific institutions in a variety of geomorphological conditions. In one photo, people take the initiative to set fire to a forest that has been wet beforehand and control the burning of wildfires within a controllable range, which costs one percent of the cost of extinguishing a forest fire. In another photo, a woman sits alone facing the mountains, her head connected to a brainwave test to help depict her mood changes in the face of nature. Foley focuses on various examples of technology intervening in the relationship between man and nature, and they all share a common desire: to live in harmony with nature.
Lucas Folia, Human Nature Series, Jason Ignites The Fire, U.S. Forest Service, California, 2015. To curb the spread of wildfires, the U.S. Forest Service burns in a controlled manner between fire seasons, destroying nearly 7 million acres of land each year.
Lucas Folia, Human Nature Series, Kate Conducts EEG Cognitive Research in the Countryside of Utah, 2015
Other works do not have the background of specific real-world problems, but have realistic references. The plants photographed by Janelle Lynch in large formats and the natural landscapes photographed by Avosca van der Morren may seem ordinary, but their hidden power naturally reveals itself as we reflect on ourselves. When Lynch photographs plants, he does not focus on the plants themselves, but uses the plants as part of the space, and the plants in the picture grow inward from the edges, and Lynch uses a large-format camera to create a depth of field effect. At the same time, she incorporates different species of plants into the picture, which blend together clearly and vaguely, just like people, races, and individuals in the world, both different and harmonious. Van de Moren's black-and-white landscapes are abstract and inexplicable, but before the work falls into the mystery of self-talk, the picture still has the logic of left and right perception. Van de Moren naturally does not have the common problem of landscape photography: go somewhere in a process, follow the tutorial, and mechanically press a photo. Her eyes were not disciplined by the symbolic landscape, and van de Moren paid more attention to what the image looked like than the object itself. Black and white are stripped of the material, the scenery is not even preset, is it a stream, a grass, a rock, an ice, a reef, or a wind? The form of matter does not seem to be deterministic, as if to point to a more primitive nature—a nature in a state of chaos and indistinguishment at the beginning of the world.
Janele Lynch, Another Way to Look at Love Series, Red Fruit, 2016
Avosca van de Morren, Black Paradise Series, #542-16, 2018
Avosca van de Mauren, Black Heaven series, #435-3, 2015
I want everything in the world to live in harmony, and I want to see nature without prejudice. Lynch and van der Moren may not have created with meaning, but their feelings about the world naturally emerge in the work, giving the work an open semantics that is also the way photography connects the author and the viewer as a language.
Robin Rhodes, one of the Original Meanings of Hope series, 2017
South African artist Robin Rod and photographer Alexia Webster, also from South Africa, made the art of photography a gift. Robin Rhodes, a street painting and performance artist, invited young people who had never been well educated to participate in his projects in less secure areas of Johannesburg. In the process of art and performance that incorporates elements of geometry, perspective and physics, these young people gradually develop an understanding of rational logic. Alexia Webster set up makeshift studios on the streets around the world, inviting passers-by and their loved ones to leave photos in front of the set. These people are mostly refugees, miners who are far away from their loved ones or displaced civilians, who are not like us, who are accustomed to photographs, on the contrary, it is difficult for them to have a photo. Photos are precious to them. Webster thinks so.
In Rod's photographs, he hopes that young people will be properly guided, and Webster hopes that her photos will give people hope. Her will is well-intentioned, the camera facing the vulnerable, the kind invitation, the starting point for wanting to give love to others... But her photograph still evokes mixed emotions, and as a project that requires the participation of the subjects, the subject's response should also be considered: the baby is held in front of the camera by the adult, the black girl is thoughtful, and the two girls stand on the overgrown ground, with a picture of an elephant hanging on the wall behind them. Hope is like a constructed dream, and the reality dilemma is glaring in the photo.
Alexander Webster, Street Studio Series, At the corner of Cornwell and Hercules Street in Woodstock, Cape Town, South Africa, two friends pose for this portrait, 2011
Alexander Webster, a street studio series, 18-year-old mother Mapenz Mwamini poses for a photo shoot of three-month-old Achille. They come from peasant families in the town of Masisi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where violence has led to their displacement. 2014
Hope and disappointment come together, like half a glass of water, and the optimist sees what is left, while the pessimist sees only what is lost. Joanna Jomali's work is emotional, and she responded to the 2016 terrorist attack on Grand Bassam Beach in Côte d'Ivoire in her unique artistic expression. Noticing the sad atmosphere in the town's crowds after the attack, Jomaly took pictures on the streets, printed them on canvas, and embroidered them on them. Threading needle leads creates a new reality on the image, and the fusion of the two means gives the work more space for expression, and Jomali's intention is clear. Her behavior is like suturing wounds, and although photography is not a surgical procedure and cannot suture physical wounds, her work sends a signal, similar to blessings and prayers, to soothe people's spiritual wounds.
Joanna Jomaly, Never Mind Series, Untitled, 2019
Photographer Gideon Mendel's work, on the other hand, carries a certain contingency. He had documented the apartheid problem in South Africa in the 90s, and some of the undeveloped negatives were forgotten in the warehouse, and many years later, when Mendel rediscovered them, he found that they had been corroded by time and humid air, and the printed photographs were thus covered by the traces left by corrosion, and the content he had originally taken was like a person's memory of a long-ago thing, or faintly visible, or completely reduced to an invisible pattern.
Gideon Mendel, Damage: A Proof of Those Fading Memories series. In December 1985, a gun battle broke out between Zulu and Pondo in the Umbublu shantytown of KwaZulu-Natal province. 2016
Gideon Mendel, Damage: A Proof of Those Fading Memories series. In July 1985, Eastland Hauden, Bishop Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, paid tribute to a group of mourners among the four mourners in the town of Duduza. 2016
Mendel reminds people of the power of memory and forgetting. It reminds people again of the relationship between the act of shooting and the subject in the exhibition, the occurrence of photography probably does not change the life of the subject, they will not live better or worse, but they are seen by the whole world, remembered by some people, and there is hope in itself.
Margaret Courtney Clark's photograph takes me to Namibia in southwest Africa, where the land is barren, extremely water-scarce, but rich in mineral resources that attract foreign investors, and a red carpet in the desert reminds us of the loneliness after the festival. The old man plays the violin whose skin is about to fall off, but the keys dyed Tiffany blue appear full of personality. Two women dancing in the desert, the trees in the foreground unable to produce green leaves, are decorated with discarded bottle caps, they look inherently optimistic, but the description shows that their dances are also designed to attract tourists here.
Margaret Courtney-Clark, Crying Sorrow into a Rushing Rain Series, Melodies in the Sun, 2015
Margaret Courtney-Clark, crying grief into a rushing rain series, incarnated as a morning in hope/dunes. 2015
Similarly, Clarke's work asks the viewer a question: From what perspective do you view these works? At the end of the exhibition, a tree stands quietly in the desert, it is about to wither, but it is still alive.
Margaret Courtney-Clark, crying grief into a rushing rain series, fragile and blooming/wild tobacco blossoms, it is used by locals for hunting ceremonies and also uses it to heal wounds. 2015
Seeing this scene, Clark thought of herself—she had been diagnosed with cancer, and the tree was like an incarnation of her, alive despite its impending withering.
Exhibition posters
Exhibition period: September 11, 2021 - October 24, 2021
Venue: Shanghai Center of Photography (No. 2555-1, Longteng Avenue, Xuhui District)
Editor-in-Charge: Lu Sijia
Proofreader: Ding Xiao