Chinese photography

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Chinese photography is photography from the nation of China. The characteristic division of such creative work is between either photojournalism or fine art photography.

1 Before 1949
2 Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976)
3 1976-1993
4 1993-present
5 External links

[edit] Before 1949

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[edit] Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976)

Photography in China was seen as a Socialist Realist propagandist tool, and thus a form of fictionalised 'truth telling'.

[edit] 1976-1993

The aftermath of the Cultural Revolution led to a documentary photography movement that rapidly grew in strength. Many photojournalists worked for the state, and therefore they do not own their copyright in their work.

[edit] 1993-present

The establishment in 1993 of the East Village area of the capital Beijing, established an artistic coterie that used photography as an adjunct to experimental performance art and conceptual art. In 1994, Rong Rong co-founded the first Chinese conceptual art photography magazine, New Photo.

Many artist-photographers have had success, especially in the west. Although their work has not been as explicitly political as that by very similar conceptual artists in the west, it has used the same repertoire of 'shock'; nakedness, swear words, dead babies and elephant dung, among other items that have now become tired clichés. Some photographers also work in 'Chinese kitsch' - sometimes called "Mao goes Pop" — a collage style very similar to western pop art of the 1960s. Presently, we are reminded of the discursive autonomy contemporary Chinese art is increasingly afforded, seen in works by artists such as Xu Zhen, Xing Danwen, and Zhang Yue - artists who can not be easily summarized under the umbrella of a single artistic praxis such as "kitsch" or "pop" or "shock."