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Salts of the earth captured for posterity
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JUAN I-Jong, known for his significant role in introducing Western photography to China and Chinese photographs to the world when he was the editor of the bilingual Tainwan-based magazine Photographers International, recently demonstrated the charisma of black-and-white pictures in a solo exhibition titled “Man and Land.”
The exhibition at the Liuli China Art Museum comprises 84 photographs taken by Juan between 1974 and 1986 in villages around Taiwan. They were selected from 4,000 rolls of film that he shot.
The exhibition was first staged in 1987 in Taipei and Paris to critical acclaim, firmly cementing Juan’s premier status in realistic photography.
Originally, he had no plans to exhibit the series this year, preferring to wait four years until his 70th birthday. However, Chang Yi, an award-winning film director and co-founder of the Liuli China Art Museum, persuaded the photographer to mount the show in Shanghai this summer.
“I couldn’t wait,” Juan said. “I wanted every picture to be shared with everyone.”
Chinese artist, writer and critic Chen Danqing wrote of the exhibition: “What is photography? Why do people take photographs? Mr Juan’s work offers an honest and touching answer.”
Born in a village in Yilan county in northeastern Taiwan in 1950, Juan was working for a local magazine in 1972 while he studied photography.
“I clearly remember the first time I picked up my camera,” he recalled. “I was standing on a street under the scorching sun, panic-stricken and unable to click the shutter. It seemed all the passers-by were asking themselves, ‘Why is he focusing on me’?”
Perhaps “Man and Land” gives the answer.
Juan traveled to the farthest corners of Taiwan during its period of martial law (1949-1987) and was often questioned by policemen and soldiers, and even detained for entering prohibited areas. Despite such hindrances, he said he experienced a sense of joy the entire time — a feeling he compared with falling in love.
“The attraction of traveling lies in the unexpected things and people,” he said. “They widened my vision and enriched my life.”
The Shanghai exhibition revolves around four themes — growth, labor, belief and destiny. In black and white, the photos capture people working on the land and their strong traditional aesthetics.
“What I was capturing was the agricultural society in Taiwan, like any of its kind around the world,” he said. “The trust among people, and the harmony between man and nature are the best memories.
“Kindness, appreciating what you have and generosity are traditional Chinese values. I don’t exhibit these photos for contemporary audiences out of nostalgia, but rather to reawaken those traditional virtues that can make life better now and in the future.”
Juan admits to still being impressed by one of the pictures he took. It features a naked old man bathing in a river.
“When he saw me taking a picture of him, his first action was to cover his naked body with his arms,” Juan said. “Afterward, he talked to me. I expected him to accuse me of being some kind of lunatic, but instead he just said, ‘Thank you so much’!”
Most of the village people he encountered were welcoming to his camera. Sometimes they told Juan, “They are not pretty enough. You have wasted your film.”
Each picture is accompanied with some background information or emotion of the photographer.
“I don’t think a quality picture comes purely from the photographer,” Juan explained. “He does only half of the job. The person in your lens is actually the director. Sometimes it is like a gift from God.”
For example, one of the photos in the exhibition features village children competing in tumbling.
“It was such a plain scene, but I saw something deep behind it,” Juan said. “Humankind repeats the life circle and accumulates the six primary afflictions (Buddhism terms referring to conditions such as addiction and suspicion). The people in my camera are gazing in an up-side-down moment without any awareness. That’s it! A perfect photo from God!”
Date: Through October 30 (closed on Mondays), 10am-5pm
Venue: Liuli China Art Museum, 25 Taikang Rd
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