银盐和数码
贺迈

首先,光是一种能量,而且具有神性.中国学者墨翟可能是人类最早看出光的魔幻的人(现在我们称之为摄影术的基本原理),时间是公元前五世纪;当然是时而看得见,时而又看不见.结果,差不多过了一千年,意大利文艺复兴之后,画家卡拉瓦乔开始籍用光来宣扬理性得光芒;之后尼德兰伦伯朗,以及法国巴比松的画家们都将光来叙述魂灵;直到十九世纪初摄影术发明时,印象主义的画家们作最后的挣扎,最终光的特权由绘画转让给了摄影.问题是差不多两个世纪以来摄影以光究竟讲述了些什么.

就我所知,有三种可能的答案.第一种具有肯定性:如我们眼睛所看到的,因为当相机的快门瞬间地开启和关闭,这个世界就形成了.影象如同魔术一样令人发指,而且具有铁证如山的说服力,或者说真实地令人难以承受.所以新闻报道断然不可或缺地需要摄影图片来佐证.所以摄影具有亲历地见证性,譬如早期银盐照片桑德的德意志肖像.同样王宁德的那些表情漠然生硬的舞女;以及黎朗镜头里阴霾天空下的孩子;阿牛的那些恍惚的人群;洪致的抑郁风景;铁鷹、海蟸的日记式图像,都是一种见证.70年代人的心灵见证.第二种答案具欺诈性.

因为摄影术具有铁证如山的见证能力,所以商业的魔爪无情的蚕噬过来,整个二十世纪成了图像垃圾的时代.不过陈辉挪用了商业摄影诸如杂志方式描绘着另一种美感.当然商业的侵入,数码技术引入,给了图像又一番新天地,谢文跃的作品就是这样的结果.第三种答案或许是最迷人和迷惑人的.这在摄影史上最难以分辨清晰,而且模糊不清;因为你不能说布烈松的作品仅仅是纪实照片,卡帕是新闻照片,纽顿的是时装照片,而曼·雷的才是艺术照片吗?那么,具有诗人忧郁气质的黎朗所拍的那些梦幻场景,还有铁鷹敏锐的眼睛所带动色彩斑斓的镜头里,洪致、海蟸她们那种女性特有的柔情,谢文跃以游戏的方式阐释战争结束之后的冷酷,等等都是模糊不清的.外表的现实使得与我们判断和摄影家本人素养以及关照点产生矛盾,并且无法从纷繁浩瀚的摄影史里脱身出来.

还有另一种局面就是艺术家个人与整个现实世界整体不相合,当数码时代到来之际,艺术家们重新发现了摄影还有更广阔的天地,于是摄影崭新的格局建立了.这里孙洪宾利用古老银盐技术与现代数码技术的优雅的手势挥动出太极的神秘,董文胜则讲述着不可多得的江南奢靡,无非是将摄影术扩展到了新的更广阔的领域.所以,当摄影已经不是原先的那个摄影概念的时候,而对着这些照片,在这个古老的国度里,只能做一个苍凉的手势.

2003/3/12

Gelatin Silver Prints Vs Digital Pictures
He Mai

First, light is a kind of power with divinity. Chinese scholar Mo Di could be the first human being to discover the illusion of light (the basic theory of what we call photography today) in the fifth century B C. Naturally the power was visible sometimes and invisible some other times. Then 1000 years passed. After the Italian Renaissance, artist Karavaggio started to advocate the brightness of reason through lights. Later, Rembrandt of Netherland and the Barbizon artists of France all depicted the soul with light. Until the beginning of the 19th century when photography was invented, the Impressionists made their final struggle, losing the privilege of light to photography. The question is, what has photography told with light in the nearly two centuries?

As far as I know, there are three possible answers. The first is definite: as our eyes see, with the instant open and close of the shutter, the world is made. Pictures are as horrible as magic, with undeniable convincing power, or unbearably true. So that news reports needed photographs as indispensable evidence. Photography has the proof through experience, such as the early silver salt German portraits by August Sanders. And the dancers with stiff facial expression by Wang Ningde, children under cloudy sky in the lens of Li Lang, crowd as if in a trance by A Niu, the depressive scenery by Hong Zhi, and picture diaries by Tie Ying and Hai Shi, are all proof to the heart and spirit of those born in the 1970s.

The second answer is deceitful. Because photography’s undeniable proving ability, the commercial talon approaches ruthlessly. The whole 20th century became an age of junk pictures. But Chen Hui adopted methods of commercial photography such as used in magazines to describe a different aestheticism. Also thanks to the invasion of commerce and introduction of digital technique, pictures gained a new world. Xie Wenyue’s works is a result.

The third answer may be the most enchanting and confusing. It is ambiguous in the history of photography, because you can’t say Cartier-Bresson’s works are simply documentary, Robert Kapa’s works news photos, and Helmut Newton’s works fashion pictures, while only Man Ray’s works are art photography?

Then the dream scenes photographed by Li Lang, who has the melancholy character of a poet, the colourful lens led by the shrewd eyes of Tie Ying, the feminine sensibility of Hong Zhi and Hai Shi, Xie Wenyue’s works who illustrated the cruelty after war in a way of game playing. All are ambiguous and superficial realities, contradicting our judgement with photographer’s attainment and his keypoint issue. It made us impossible to get out of the voluminous history of photography.
Another situation is the discordance of artists as individuals and the real world. With the come of the digital age, artists have found a broader new world of photography and new patterns of photography has been founded. Sun Hongbin waves the mystery of Tai-Ji, adopting ancient silver salt technology with the graceful gesture of modern digital technology. Dong Wenshen tells the unique decadence and luxury of the southern range of the Yangtze River. They unquestionably led photography to wider ranges. So, when photography is no longer the original concept, in face of these pictures, in this ancient country, one has to give but a solitary gesture.

2003/3/12
translated by Yvonne zhamg