| Book Launch and Press Conference: Lianzhou International Festival of Photography 新书和新闻发布会:连州国际摄影年展 | |
| 影子的炼金术The Alchemy of Shadows | |
 | Venue: Timezone 8 (798) |
| Date/日期: Saturday(周六) 20.10.2007 | |
Time/时间: 17:00-19:00 | |
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| Lianzhou International Photo Festival (LIPF) 2007/第三届连州国际摄影年展 The Alchemy of Shadows/影子的炼金术 Curatorial Theme/学术主题 The Alchemy of Shadows evokes a meaning often implied by art photography: the mastery of time and atmosphere, the ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, a gift for transcending time and space in the blinking of an eye, and the expertise to sculpt the likeness of a world. In the lens of the contemporary photographer, such talent takes the form of an impulse to create ever more ‘possible worlds’ out of the nuances of light and shadow. “影子的炼金术”一方面把我们重新引向1830年代，摄影术发明之初，图像在化学药剂的作用下显影并被留存之际所引发的创始性的惊奇，在影像形成的刹那，时空凝聚，世界成形显象——在今天，在这个图像增殖且泛滥的时代，这种源始性的惊奇早已沦丧。另一方面，这个主题也喻指了艺术家摄影创作的天赋和能力。这是一种把握时机与气象的能力，化凡庸为神奇的能力，在刹那中穿越时间的能力，为世界造像的能力。在当代艺术家的摄影实践中，这种能力被进一步转化为一种用光与影创造可能世界的实验的冲动。(看中文,请往下滑) The archaic form of the Chinese character for ‘shadow’ is the same as the ideogram meaning ‘day’, ‘bright’ and ‘light’. The semantic transformation from the ‘light of day’ into ‘darkness of shadows’ illustrates the interconnectedness between the traditional philosophical concepts of substance and vacuity, being and nothingness. On the other hand, in Western languages, ‘shadow’ is a word that often comes with negative connotations, referring to the unreal, the supernatural, or gloom. ‘Alchemy’, the medieval philosophical inquiry into the nature of things and the forerunner of modern chemistry, is a term used today to suggest any process through which the ordinary is transformed into something extraordinary. The Alchemy of Shadows takes us back to the 1830s, to the birth of photography, when photographers first used chemicals to develop images to preserve them for the renewed amazement of the viewer. Today, in the image-saturated era we live in, such an innocent bewilderment in front of an image, to be amazed by an entire world emerging out of the instant convergence of space and time, is forever lost. The Alchemy of Shadows also evokes the special talent implied by art photography: the mastery of time and atmosphere, the ability to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, a gift for transcending time and space in the blinking of an eye, and the expertise to sculpt the likeness of a world. In the lens of the contemporary photographer, such talent takes the form of an impulse to create ever more ‘possible worlds’ out of the nuances of light and shadow. Photography is an event that takes place in the world, it represents a comprehensive look beyond the hollow fleeting instant. It is not the materialization of the decisive moment, for photography does not intend to display just a slice taken out of the linear progression of time; nor does it serve as a means to join broken moments along the temporal continuum. Photographs are vessels of time that conceal the temporal within its bosom. With a casual glance it rescues a lost moment from daily life. Photography seals moments for safe keeping, revealing it again in the act of developing — the dramatic transformation from one moment into eternity obscures the temporal process that is required for camera memory and chemical changes in the film. This temporal process constitutes the ‘differance’ between the parallel worlds of image and reality. It is in this delay during the photography process that a hidden moment in time is concealed. Photography takes place within the boundaries of time; it is also a mysterious realm hidden within our world. Photography yearns to live up to the original meaning of its name — literally, to ‘write with light’ — in order to revive the temporality hidden in its images. Within its inherent temporality, photographic memory and ‘writing with light’ may strive to pen a ‘play of shadows’ in the ‘theater of time’, a spectacle of silhouettes born out of the vestiges of light, revealing the shape of time for all to see; hence the magic of The Alchemy of Shadows. Academic Debate “Most of the debate lies in the aesthetic argument of ‘photography as art’, while the sociological thesis of ‘art as photography’ receives little attention.” Neither the art world nor photography circle has yet convincingly replied to this proposition of Walter Benjamin’s. Naturally, our relationship to photography cannot be summarized in one sentence. Ordinary experience shows photography to be a substitute for reality; it is as a ‘substitute-reality’ that photography helps us to retrieve knowledge and control reality. Photography documents memorable events and serves as a memento of daily life; it represents modern man’s collective image-making. It is a witness, and a molding force, of family history and of personal and public memory. Ever since it was invented, photography’s uses have spilled beyond the boundaries of its definition as art. LIPF 2007 will examine the significance of photography beyond the aesthetic, focusing on the topic of ‘photography as experience’. Photography will not be regarded solely from the point of view of the ‘art of photography’ or ‘art photography’, nor will it be analyzed from the perspective of fine art or medium. We will explore how photography as a visual imaging mechanism alters our experience of reality. In this way, the experience of photography will demonstrate the concept of ‘the photography we live by’, which regards photography as the expression of the quotidian, and tries to understand the ideology behind photography, the existential dimension of photography and its anthropological implications. Exhibition Structure II. Thematic Exhibition: Theater of Time Photography consecrates the moment, and our perceptions of events and situations are bound by the medium of the camera. However, photography is an event in itself and our experience of the moment obscures the event of photography and its inherent temporality. Today, peoples of the world share a common notion of time as an abstract and purely numerical sequence. On the one hand, such a conceptualization neglects the undivided livingness of the world; cosmic time and human affairs were once upon a time inextricably bound together, now they are increasingly estranged from each other. On the other hand, the imagined linearity of numerical time and separate independent moments are linked by the notion of time as a string of countless separate instants. The invention in the 20th century of the snapshot apparently stands as evidence to such a thesis, and the ‘snap’ of the instant camera has encouraged photography to capture the ‘decisive moment’, a slice out of a series of moments. Photography is such a slice, a portrait of a moment in time, rendering the moment visible and bringing it into the range of our experience. At the same time, the proliferation of these ‘snap’ instants also gradually conceal the understanding of photography as a ‘time-based medium’. The Theater of Time will alternately emphasize the internal time of photography and its nature as an event in the world. Additionally, it will reaffirm the inherent time-space and narrative potential of photography. II Documentary Exhibition: Photography as Experience This< 
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