Qing Jin--A site specific project by Peter Vink
My Camera and I ：Fourth Lianzhou International Photo Festival
City: Lianzhou
Curator: Li Xianting, Bao Kun
Duration: 2008-12-06 ~ 2008-12-12
Place: The Candy Factory, The Shoe Factory, The Granary
Host(s):
Co-organization(s):
Participting Artists : Drik Photo Agency, Bangladesh The University of Michigan, USA VU Agency Eve Photographers Robert Klein Gallery Poc Project Agence France-Presse The University of Kansas Otterbein College, Ohio, USA The University of Massachusetts Lowell O’Connor Studio, U
My Camera and I
Curatorial Theme/ By Li Xianting
The seemingly innocuous statement “my camera and I” might sound passé in the digital age, but it is precisely because of this that we feel the need to revisit our first person relationship with the camera in this year’s edition of the Lianzhou International Photography Festival (LIPF). The theme “My Camera and I” is meant to reemphasize the conscious being operating the camera, the individual possessing a set of opinions and beliefs and capable of independent thought that articulates a unique statement in a personal photographic language.
Specificity of language and uniqueness of vision of a photographer’s work are partially attributable to the camera, and its devices—lens, focus, exposure, etc.—circumscribe the rendering of the subject as much as they make it possible. Digital technology has revolutionized photography by succeeding in retouching, sampling and blending the photographic image, leaving no field of photography, including documentary photography, untouched, and reviving photography as a popular medium of contemporary art. By reaffirming the significance of “my camera and I”, we wish not to object to the use of new technology in the practice of photography, rather we hope to make a statement against the appropriation of photography by the Internet, advertising and other image media, which misrepresent the reality photography seeks to confront us with. As contemporary art blurs the line between various art forms and photography becomes a popular medium of contemporary art, we want to put the “I” that presses the shutter back in focus for a moment, and examine its unique relationship to the “fleeting reality”, for no other medium makes as beautiful a statement as photography—that of bearing witness to the wondrous thing that is life. By focusing on “My Camera and I”, we set aside the digital sampling, staging, blending and doctoring of the photographic image and leave it to be judged within the realm of contemporary art, and remind ourselves that the main source of photographic material comes from the relationship between the camera and real life.
“My Camera and I” takes us back to the basics of photography keeping in mind that something new can be born out of the old—a concept that isn’t foreign to LIPF’s host city Lianzhou. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907) the remote southern region was a home-in-exile for banished officials and literati, including mandarin, poet and essayist Han Yu, poet Liu Zongyuan and poet, philosopher and essayist Liu Yuxi. The domestic instability and foreign aggression of the turbulent Late Tang inspired Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and other the literati to dispose of the florid and parallel writing style favored since the Six Dynasties (220-589) and propose a revival of pre-Han prose. While building on tradition, the “Classical Prose Movement” they spearheaded was to advocate creativity and champion a style that lay out current issues and provided cutting analysis of social ills in a plain language that flowed freely from the characters it used. In this sense, the theme “My Camera and I” is not only intended to assert a return our relationship to the device, but also to reaffirm the importance of the independent viewpoint and revisit the camera’s ability to bear witness to and confront us with reality, current events and emotions.
City: Lianzhou
Curator: Li Xianting, Bao Kun
Duration: 2008-12-06 ~ 2008-12-12
Place: The Candy Factory, The Shoe Factory, The Granary
Host(s):
Co-organization(s):
Participting Artists : Drik Photo Agency, Bangladesh The University of Michigan, USA VU Agency Eve Photographers Robert Klein Gallery Poc Project Agence France-Presse The University of Kansas Otterbein College, Ohio, USA The University of Massachusetts Lowell O’Connor Studio, U
My Camera and I
Curatorial Theme/ By Li Xianting
The seemingly innocuous statement “my camera and I” might sound passé in the digital age, but it is precisely because of this that we feel the need to revisit our first person relationship with the camera in this year’s edition of the Lianzhou International Photography Festival (LIPF). The theme “My Camera and I” is meant to reemphasize the conscious being operating the camera, the individual possessing a set of opinions and beliefs and capable of independent thought that articulates a unique statement in a personal photographic language.
Specificity of language and uniqueness of vision of a photographer’s work are partially attributable to the camera, and its devices—lens, focus, exposure, etc.—circumscribe the rendering of the subject as much as they make it possible. Digital technology has revolutionized photography by succeeding in retouching, sampling and blending the photographic image, leaving no field of photography, including documentary photography, untouched, and reviving photography as a popular medium of contemporary art. By reaffirming the significance of “my camera and I”, we wish not to object to the use of new technology in the practice of photography, rather we hope to make a statement against the appropriation of photography by the Internet, advertising and other image media, which misrepresent the reality photography seeks to confront us with. As contemporary art blurs the line between various art forms and photography becomes a popular medium of contemporary art, we want to put the “I” that presses the shutter back in focus for a moment, and examine its unique relationship to the “fleeting reality”, for no other medium makes as beautiful a statement as photography—that of bearing witness to the wondrous thing that is life. By focusing on “My Camera and I”, we set aside the digital sampling, staging, blending and doctoring of the photographic image and leave it to be judged within the realm of contemporary art, and remind ourselves that the main source of photographic material comes from the relationship between the camera and real life.
“My Camera and I” takes us back to the basics of photography keeping in mind that something new can be born out of the old—a concept that isn’t foreign to LIPF’s host city Lianzhou. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907) the remote southern region was a home-in-exile for banished officials and literati, including mandarin, poet and essayist Han Yu, poet Liu Zongyuan and poet, philosopher and essayist Liu Yuxi. The domestic instability and foreign aggression of the turbulent Late Tang inspired Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan and other the literati to dispose of the florid and parallel writing style favored since the Six Dynasties (220-589) and propose a revival of pre-Han prose. While building on tradition, the “Classical Prose Movement” they spearheaded was to advocate creativity and champion a style that lay out current issues and provided cutting analysis of social ills in a plain language that flowed freely from the characters it used. In this sense, the theme “My Camera and I” is not only intended to assert a return our relationship to the device, but also to reaffirm the importance of the independent viewpoint and revisit the camera’s ability to bear witness to and confront us with reality, current events and emotions.
Forword of Artistic Director
On Standards and Beliefs
By Duan Yuting
As art director of Lianzhou International Photography Festival (LIPF), people often ask me what my standards are.
I explain that their question stems from a misunderstanding of the function of an art director. The art director isn’t a judge with a book of laws—even less a quality control inspector—and so he or she has no list of clear standards to go by.
That answer gets me out of a prickly situation, but I know that I’ve avoided the essence of the question. The reporters and general public don’t expect me to list out a series of rigorous standards. What they want to know, what they think they need to know, is as an art director, what are my fundamental ideas and beliefs about photography.
The question haunts me. How would I personally define photography? It is a daily necessity, something we use everyday. It is a powerful source of discourse and a magnificent wealth of knowledge that is constantly producing new thoughts, ideas and theories. It is a duty and a quest. But now, one after the other, members of the public ask me: “What brought you to choose these photos? What is the main reason that justifies your choices?
Now I am ready to attempt to answer that question.
In the span of our lifetimes, we have witnessed frequent and sudden changes in the concept of the image, the definition of photography and significance of photography in our lives. Now the many convictions we elaborated and upheld in the past are coming under fire. However, faced with the question, I would rather return to the earlier days of photography, to times when the changes where only beginning to appear on the horizon, and approach and rediscover photography in many different ways.
Human consciousness and world view might have been conscribed within a strict set of rules at the time and the voice of complacency of truth might remind us that things are so and that we have no power to choose or argue, but the light of photography made us see everything in a different light. Humanity is far richer and more complex what we are aware of. Photography reveals the texture of experience, exposes paradoxes, and witnesses how humanity sweeps away illusions, rules, categories and theories to discover and make real one’s own truth.
In this sense, photography must endure pride and prejudice. Faced with doubt of its significance, photography has preserved its eloquence, vivid lifelikeness, honesty and freedom.
Because of this, I believe that an event like LIPF can be approved of or called into question; it can be analyzed, judged or theorized upon. But validation, discredit, analysis and judgment do not regulate and tame photography and suck the juice out of it; it is quite the opposite: they vigilantly uphold the spirit of photography.
In the same way, LIPF sees it a risk worth taking not to seek impartiality. LIPF is powerful proof of human imagination. It unleashes the hidden potential of photography, making consciousness and what lies beyond words clear for the eye to see.
Lianzhou Iinternational Photography Festival wants to send out a clear message: as long as your camera hasn’t turned its back on reality, your works have stemmed from your personal experience and emotions, and you uphold the spirit of photography, we will be there to look at and admire your work, promote it and lend a helping hand.
These are LIPF’s vision and beliefs.
On Standards and Beliefs
By Duan Yuting
As art director of Lianzhou International Photography Festival (LIPF), people often ask me what my standards are.
I explain that their question stems from a misunderstanding of the function of an art director. The art director isn’t a judge with a book of laws—even less a quality control inspector—and so he or she has no list of clear standards to go by.
That answer gets me out of a prickly situation, but I know that I’ve avoided the essence of the question. The reporters and general public don’t expect me to list out a series of rigorous standards. What they want to know, what they think they need to know, is as an art director, what are my fundamental ideas and beliefs about photography.
The question haunts me. How would I personally define photography? It is a daily necessity, something we use everyday. It is a powerful source of discourse and a magnificent wealth of knowledge that is constantly producing new thoughts, ideas and theories. It is a duty and a quest. But now, one after the other, members of the public ask me: “What brought you to choose these photos? What is the main reason that justifies your choices?
Now I am ready to attempt to answer that question.
In the span of our lifetimes, we have witnessed frequent and sudden changes in the concept of the image, the definition of photography and significance of photography in our lives. Now the many convictions we elaborated and upheld in the past are coming under fire. However, faced with the question, I would rather return to the earlier days of photography, to times when the changes where only beginning to appear on the horizon, and approach and rediscover photography in many different ways.
Human consciousness and world view might have been conscribed within a strict set of rules at the time and the voice of complacency of truth might remind us that things are so and that we have no power to choose or argue, but the light of photography made us see everything in a different light. Humanity is far richer and more complex what we are aware of. Photography reveals the texture of experience, exposes paradoxes, and witnesses how humanity sweeps away illusions, rules, categories and theories to discover and make real one’s own truth.
In this sense, photography must endure pride and prejudice. Faced with doubt of its significance, photography has preserved its eloquence, vivid lifelikeness, honesty and freedom.
Because of this, I believe that an event like LIPF can be approved of or called into question; it can be analyzed, judged or theorized upon. But validation, discredit, analysis and judgment do not regulate and tame photography and suck the juice out of it; it is quite the opposite: they vigilantly uphold the spirit of photography.
In the same way, LIPF sees it a risk worth taking not to seek impartiality. LIPF is powerful proof of human imagination. It unleashes the hidden potential of photography, making consciousness and what lies beyond words clear for the eye to see.
Lianzhou Iinternational Photography Festival wants to send out a clear message: as long as your camera hasn’t turned its back on reality, your works have stemmed from your personal experience and emotions, and you uphold the spirit of photography, we will be there to look at and admire your work, promote it and lend a helping hand.
These are LIPF’s vision and beliefs.
Overseas Guests:
Michael Famighetti(USA): Managing editor, Aperture Magazine
Alistair Hicks (Germany): Chief Curator, Deutsche Bank Collection
Anna Douglas (UK): Curator, Member of Art Committee of Midwest land of UK
Bonnie Marla Rubenstein (Canada): Director, CONTACT, the Toronto Photography Festival
Frederick C. Baldwin (USA): President of FotoFest International, Houston
Krzysztof Candrowicz (Poland): Artistic Director, International Festival of Photography in Lodz
Michael Famighetti(USA): Managing editor, Aperture Magazine
Alistair Hicks (Germany): Chief Curator, Deutsche Bank Collection
Anna Douglas (UK): Curator, Member of Art Committee of Midwest land of UK
Bonnie Marla Rubenstein (Canada): Director, CONTACT, the Toronto Photography Festival
Frederick C. Baldwin (USA): President of FotoFest International, Houston
Krzysztof Candrowicz (Poland): Artistic Director, International Festival of Photography in Lodz
