Zooming In : Histories of Photography in China

From the first sets of photographic records made by Western travelers to doctored portraits of Chairman Mao and the avant-garde photographic performances of the post–Cultural Revolution era, photography in China has followed divergent paths. In this book, Wu Hung explores the multiple histories of photographic production in China, using them to tell a larger story about China’s shifting sociopolitical contexts and the different agendas, technologies, and aesthetics that have helped define its arts. At the center of the book is a large question: how has photography represented China and its people, its collective history and memory as well as the diversity of Chinese artists who have striven for creative expression? To address this question, the author offers an in-depth study of selected photographers, themes, and movements in Chinese photography from 1860 to the present, covering a wide range of genres, including portraiture, photojournalism, architectural and landscape photography, and conceptual photography. Beautifully illustrated, this book offers a multifaceted and in-depth analysis of an important photographic history. "From the first sets of photographic records made by Western travellers to the emergence of ‘Chinese photography’ imbued with national anxiety and individual desire, and from doctored portraits of Chairman Mao to ‘experimental’ representations of urban transformation and avant-garde performances of the post-Cultural Revolution era, the development of photography in China has followed divergent paths through changing sociopolitical contexts, producing images with different agendas, technological innovations and artistic pursuits. Zooming In explores multiple histories of photographic production in China. At its centre lies a large question: how has photography represented China and its people, collective history and memory, individual subjectivity and creativity? To address this multifaceted question, Wu Hung offers an in-depth study of selected photographers, themes and movements of photography in China from 1860 to the present, covering a wide range of topics from portraiture to photojournalism, architectural and landscape photography, photo-publications and conceptual photography."--from the publisher Cover Zooming in Histories of Photography in China Wu Hung Imprint Page Contents Introduction Part One: Representing China and the Self 1. Inventing a ‘Chinese’ Portrait Style in Early Photography: The Case of Milton Miller 2. Photography’s Subjugation of China: A ‘Magnificent Collection’ of Second Opium War Images 3. Birth of the Self and the Nation: Cutting the Queue 4. Self as Art: Jin Shisheng and His Interior Space Part Two: History Revisited 5. Searching for Immortal Mountains: The Origins and Aesthetics of Chinese Landscape Photography 6. A Second History: An Archive of Manipulated Photographs 7. The ‘Old Photo Craze’ and Contemporary Chinese Art Part Three: Living in Time 8. Mo Yi: The Story of an Urban Ethnographer 9. Liu Zheng: My Countrymen 10. Rong Rong: Ruins as Autobiography 11. Miao Xiaochun: Journeying through Space and Time References Bibliography Acknowledgements Photo Acknowledgements Index