ART not only imitates life, it also captures it on film for posterity.

The Shanghai Center for Photography on the West Bund is a repository for photography at its finest, hosting some of the most talked-about exhibitions of the past year.

In spring, the works of two masters from the international photographic cooperative Magnum were on display. Other exhibitions have included the celebrity portraits and behind-the-scenes shots of French photographer Brigitte Lacombe. Currently, a subjective depiction of the natural world is on exhibition.

Liu Heung Shing, founder of the Shanghai Center for Photography, said the aim of the site is “to initiate a novel conversation about photography.” The Hong Kong-born photographer and Pulitzer Prize winner recently sat down with Shanghai Daily to discuss the center since its opening in May 2015.

“Ever since our first exhibition,” he said, “we have sought to alter the notion of photographic art and refine it.”

He told Shanghai Daily that the debut exhibition, entitled “Photography From the 20th Century,” took a wide-ranging overview of the medium. The works on loan from Chinese collector Jin Hongwei exemplified how the art of photography is continually evolving.

The center highlights groundbreakers and trendsetters in the genre, from Berenice Abbot and Robert Capa to Henri Cartier-Bresson and Cindy Sherman. Their photographic styles and techniques, and indeed the way they observe the world around them, are beautifully varied.

“That’s how we elevate the conversation about photography,” said Liu.

In China, long years of isolation crimped any academic study or discussion about photography, he said. That led to what he calls “a peculiar idea of conservation and modernity.”

“They tended to talk about laotupian, or ‘old pictures.’ But how do you define that?” he asked rhetorically. “The moment you press your finger on the shutter release, that picture is already old. What we are doing is giving laotupian a new interpretation.”

At the invitation of the local district government, Liu came to Shanghai in 2014 to establish the center. With his decades of experience in news photography and a reputation as “the Henri Cartier-Bresson of China,” he enthusiastically took charge.

Liu saw the potential of the undertaking. Shanghai has a growing middle class craving for leisure activities. Photography is an ideal option because “it’s a universal language that is easily accessible,” he said.

“The cultivation of any kind of art, including photography, requires an ambience of understanding and appreciation,” Liu explained. Changing public attitudes “make it possible to engage the public in a new conversation about photography.”

Shanghai, of course, is no stranger to adopting new ideas that come along.

“Historically, it could be regarded as an accidental benefit of imperialism,” he said, “like the adoption of water systems, trolleys and urban planning. Once you pilot something in Shanghai, you take the lead in China.”

It took about 10 months to transform a 500-square-meter roughcast construction of Los Angeles-based architectural firm Johnston Marklee into a standard exhibition center with humidity controls and floor heating.

The center now mounts about one exhibition every three months, along with hosting activities such as master workshops and roundtable discussions on photography.

In the past 16 months, the center has received 25,000 visits. Art lovers and shutterbugs alike praise the curation for its balance between spotlighting the roots of photography while exposing its cutting edge as a form of art.

“There are heavy names from overseas along with promising local talent,” said Yu Xiaoye, an amateur photographer and regular visitor to the center.

Yu said he was most impressed by the 2015 exhibition entitled “Grain to Pixel: A Story of Photography in China.” It traced an image evolution spanning over a century — how photography came to China and the impact that it has had.

“The exhibition showed how we Chinese have recorded our country, its people and its society,” Yu said.

“The center did a great job in focusing on China’s own style of photography.”

The exhibition later went on a world tour that included Melbourne and Brussels.

“We keep talking about soft power,” Liu explained. “The Chinese people need to explore their own culture and learn to respect it.”

The center’s current exhibition, entitled “Nature: A Subjective Place,” features more than 70 works showcasing how photography sees the world from an emotional perspective. The epoch-making “blurry” snapshots of late American photographer Harry Callahan are juxtaposed with novel works by young Chinese photographers and artists.

Operating as a nonprofit art institution has its benefits and pitfalls, Liu said. Shedding control by government ensures academic freedom and the integrity and content of each exhibition. But the time-consuming process of negotiating with artists and agencies, promoting events, and packing and unpacking exhibits is costly.

“You never realize how much it takes to mount an exhibition until you get aboard the process,” he said. “I was recently told that it costs the Shanghai Minsheng Art Museum 30 million yuan (US$4.4 million) for electricity alone.”

Add to that the cost of loaned exhibits, insurance premiums, transportation fees and printing, and it all adds up to a financial headache. For works by world-renowned photographers, insurance premiums alone can eat up a large chunk of budget.

Liu said he was spending half his time “finding money.” Corporate sponsorship currently accounts for a third of the center’s total funding, while a fourth comes from government subsidiaries.

Last year, Liu set up a management supervisory council to seek more commercial support, get involved in public appeals and lift the center’s artistic profile.

That leaves Liu freer to focus on exhibition content.

“I never want to lose sight of why we are here,” he said. “Core competence is and always will be content.”

In future exhibition, Liu said he will be “breaking some taboos.”

He explained, “The conventional notion is that photographs need to be gorgeously framed, with beautiful colors and museum-class glasses. Why can’t we change that? Why can’t we mount displays in the format of wallpaper or even dazibao (big-letter posters popular in the cultural revolution)?”

The exhibition calendar for next year includes a solo exhibition of the works of Yang Fudong, a pioneer in the visual arts.

“I feel strongly that the best is yet to come because China is still under-photographed,” Liu said. “If you go the US, practically everything has been tried. From a much later starting point, China has much to be anticipated in the future.”

He added, “That’s why it all comes back to what I am saying: you need to start a new conversation.”