• Resonance — A Tribute to Robert Frank Artists: Robert Frank, Mo Yi, Han Lei, Wei Lai, Wang Yishu, Luo Dan,...

    Resonance — A Tribute to Robert Frank

     

    Artists: Robert Frank, Mo Yi, Han Lei, Wei Lai, Wang Yishu, Luo Dan, Chen Ronghui, Huang Qingjun, Zeng Han, Birdhead, Yao Yao, Zhu Hao, Lu Heng, Zhou Qiang

    Curator: Jin Mu

     

    On September 9, 2019, the Swiss American photographer Robert Frank (1924-2019) died at home in the coastal city of Nova Scotia, Canada. World major media, galleries, institutions and artists all sent messages to mourn him. Seldom is that the death of a photographer can garner so much attention. Robert Frank is credited as the one who changed the course of Western photography, and his most noted 83-photo album The Americans is considered a photographic classic that subverted the tradition. The album was first published in France in 1958 and its US debut was in 1959. Under Frank’s influence, the development of Western photography experienced a turning point, with later generations of photographers breaking new ground in many directions, which constituted the main form of the diversified development of photography in the second half of the 20th century. Philip Gefter, a renowned photography critic who contributed for The New York Times for more than fifteen years, argued that with this album, Frank changed the main principle that photography recorded the objective world. His photographs showed us ordinary people in their everyday environment. His record was about their personal experience, and also about the subject itself. The result was that he changed the look of the photograph and the content of the photographic imagery. The Time Out magazine in the UK described Frank as an artist who redefined the nature of visual practice. However, The Americans was met with resistance in the US when it first came out. Many critics and the mainstream media argued that Frank had scandalized the flourishing country. The Popular Photography complained his photographs: "meaningless blur, grain, muddy exposures, drunken horizons, and general sloppiness." It is true that, in terms of content, The Americans cannot represent all of America, it simply presents a very different side of the country contrast to the optimistic America that filled mainstream media such as Life at the time. But criticism has been directed to the visual expression of the work. John Szarkowski, director of the photography department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, argued that there were actually some people using photography to reflect social problems in the US, but were not criticized in this way. He stated: "The Americans was received with mixed critical reaction. Not primarily because of its subject matter... We all knew those things existed... but the way in which they were depicted made them seem more difficult to accept, more pessimistic. There was something approaching a sharp edge of bitterness in the look of the pictures. And of course what was eventually learned from that it was not necessarily the sensibility that gave the pictures their bitter taste, but rather the knowledge that the medium itself was much more plastic, and was open to a wider range of invention that we ever realized. ” As we can see, Szarkowski identified the real reason in his explanation is the change of photographic narrative methods. Many well-known photographic artists of all ages, including Ralph Gibson and Alec Soth, have been outspoken about the influence and inspiration given by Frank. It is clear that Frank's influence continues to shape contemporary photography. Frank was introduced to China at the end of the 1980s, when the context of photography in China was different from that in the West. Before 1988, photography was treated as a tool widely used in various areas. Even after the awakening of the Chinese photographer's individual sense of observation, the inertia in this perception persists to this day. In 1988, the Taiwanese photographer Ruan Yizhong published a book entitled "Masters of Contemporary Photography" in mainland China, which introduced 20 important Western photographers, including Robert Frank. Many people first learned about Robert Frank through this book, and tried to understand his work by comparing it with Henri Cartier-Bresson's concept of the "decisive moment". While the listing of photographic masters has helped Chinese photographers to expand horizons, it has also led to a lack of understanding of the chronological evolution and mentorship in the history of Western photography. From 1989 to 1992, Franck's name appeared sporadically in the Modern Photography magazine. The narrative revealed some ambiguities and biases in people's judgment of his work. In August 1994, Robert Frank was introduced to the reader in detail, with a few of his works published in the ninth article “Serious Documentary” in the series of "Introduction to the Masters of World Documentary," compiled by Shaohua Huang. Notably, the article grouped him with Lee Friedlander, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus, who were three of the "New Documentary" photographers. It also pointed out the differences between Frank's photography and the earlier social documentary and reportage photography. Around the year 2000, a large number of original foreign catalogs, including the album The Americans, appeared frequently in the vision of domestic photographers. With more books on the history of photography, people gradually had a clear and accurate understanding of Frank's artistic thought. The periodical and magazine coverage and the rapid growth of the Internet have also contributed to a better understanding of Frank. In 2007, under the guidance of curator Robert pledge, Robert and his wife June Leaf attended the Pingyao International Photography Festival 2007 and it was their first visit to China. In 2008, Steidl published the Chinese edition of The Americans. This exhibition presents a selection of original photographs by Robert Frank from the collections of CIPA Gallery and the artists Huang Qingjun and RongRong, as well as the publications about Frank from the Yingshang Photography Book Archive. We have also assembled the works by thirteen Chinese photographers to present along with these precious Frank’s photos. Mo Yi and Han Lei started their photographic creation in the early and mid-1980s respectively. At that time, although the Chinese knew little about Frank, there was a certain resonance with Frank in spirit and temperament. Wei Lai, Lu Heng, Wang Yishu and Huang Qingjun all visited Frank's studio in New York and received recognition and encouragement from Frank during their personal communication. Zeng Han and Luo Dan both conducted the "On the Road" wandering photography, spiritually inspired by Frank and the “Beat Generation”. Chen Ronghui was sponsored by the "Frank Foundation — Sanyu Scholarship Fund"of the Yale University. Like Frank, he has maintained the perspective as a stranger while studying in the US. The photographic works by Zhu Hao, the Birdhead, Yao Yao and Zhou Qiang echo with Frank’s in multiple aspects of the sense of time, order, metaphor and moving image respectively. These artists have formed a group of individual experimental samples of Chinese photographers in the past forty years since the 1980s, who have embodied a consciousness of photography as an artistic language at different times and stages. When looking at the West, they seek the benchmark with their own local experiences in the history of world art. In the course of valuable explorations, Chinese artists have transcended time and space, and formed complex and delicate vibrations and resonances with Robert Frank in different times and directions. With this exhibition, we will pay tribute to Robert Frank, a pioneer of groundbreaking photography.

  • Curator 

    Jinmu

     

    Jinmu is working in the media industry. Born in Xinjiang in 1984, he now lives and works in Beijing.

  • Artist Robert Frank Robert Frank was born in 1924 in Zurich, Switzerland. He was passionate about art, literature and drama...

    Artist

    Robert Frank

    Robert Frank was born in 1924 in Zurich, Switzerland. He was passionate about art, literature and drama since young, which has laid a solid foundation for his photography creation. In 1947, Robert Frank travelled to America. After an initial attempt at commercial photography, he turned his photographic practice to artistic creation, and interacted frequently with a group of abstract expressionist painters, writers and poets active in America at that time. In 1955, at the recommendation of famous photographers like Walker Evans, Robert Frank became the first European photographer to win the Guggenheim Fellowship. Since then, he has traveled more than 10,000 kilometers across 30 states, and left a total of 28,000 negatives. Among them have selected 83 photos to create the album The Americans. In 1958, the album was first published in Europe by the French publisher Robert Del Pier, and published in the following year by Grove Press in America. The preface was written by Jack Kerouac, one of the Beat Writers. Thereafter, this album was published by Aperture, Steidl and other publishing houses as well. The photography style of the album has exerted an important impact on the development of Western photography in the next decades. It is known as the turning point in the history of western photography. Since 1959, Robert Frank turned to film creation. For the next 50 years, he has made about 20 films, with the dual identity of a photographer and a producer. In 1975, Robert Frank and his wife went to the Mabou beach in Nova Scotia, Canada and started their new photography creation. In October 1994, The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., held the "Moving Out" Robert Frank's most comprehensive major retrospective exhibition. It is the first personal retrospective of a living photographer at the National Gallery in Washington. He is regarded as a person who has changed the direction of photography history. At the age of 94, Robert Frank died at his home in Nova Scotia, Canada, on September 9, 2019.

     

  • Artist Chen Ronghui Ronghui Chen is a Chinese photographer and storyteller based in Shanghai and New Haven whose work focuses...

    Artist

    Chen Ronghui

    Ronghui Chen is a Chinese photographer and storyteller based in Shanghai and New Haven whose work focuses on China's urbanization. Known for his interest in the issues arising from the position of the individual within the urbanization and industrialization of China, Chen published his first collection of photographs named Chen Ronghui, now part of China's Contemporary Photography Catalog. He won a number of awards including the World Press Photo, BarTur Photo Award, The W.Eugene Smith Grant for students, Three Shadows Photography Award & AlPA Special Prize and Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award.

  • Artist Han Lei Born in Kaifeng, Henan in 1967, Han Lei studied in the Book Design Department of the Central...

    Artist

    Han Lei

    Born in Kaifeng, Henan in 1967, Han Lei studied in the Book Design Department of the Central Academy of Art and Design (present-day Art Academy of Tsinghua University) from 1985 to 1989. He started photography practice in 1986. From 1991 to 1993, he worked as the art editor of Modern Photography. Since 1994, Han Lei's works have been frequently exhibited at home and abroad, including the Brussels Art Festival, Rome Photography Festival, Narodni galerie v Praze, Lianzhou International Photography Festival and so on. In 1996, Han Lei held 'Alienation' a solo exhibition in Beijing. In 1998, Han Lei won the Mother Jones Documentary Award in America. So far, Han Lei has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in galleries and art institutions in Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hong Kong, New York and Paris. He is now working and living in Zhengzhou.

  • Artist Lu Heng Born in Guilin, Guangxi in 1978, Lu Heng graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University, in Information and Communication...

    Artist

    Lu Heng

    Born in Guilin, Guangxi in 1978, Lu Heng graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University, in Information and Communication Engineering, and studied photography in Beijing Film Academy. He worked as a R&D engineer, an editor of photographic magazine, a photo editor of business magazine, a photographer. He held a solo exhibition "Move off" in Beijing in 2008, participated in the Lianzhou International Photography Exhibition in 2009, and participated in the "My Enlarger" and "My Enlarger II" in Beijing in 2016. He is now living in Geneva, Switzerland.

  • Artist Luo Dan Luo Dan was born in Chongqing, China in 1968 and graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts...

    Artist

    Luo Dan

    Luo Dan was born in Chongqing, China in 1968 and graduated from Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts in 1992. His works have been included by many national and international exhibitions and photography festivals. The Plain Song series has won the Influence of the Year - Photography Award 2013 of the seventh AACArt China. In 2011, he won the Hou Dengke Documentary Photography Award, the Best New Photographer Award of Dali International Photography Festival, and the Emerging Photographer of Chinese Cutting-edge Contemporary Photography Exhibition TOP20-2011. The North and South series received the Best Annual Artist Golden Award of Lianzhou International Photography Festival in 2008. Publications include National Road 318, North and South, Chinese Contemporary Photography Album: Luo Dan and other albums. His works can be found in major institutional collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Peabody Essex Museum, the Tierney Fellowship, USA, Paris Societe Generale, Fidelity Investments and other art institutions and private collections. Luo Dan is now living and working in Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

  • Artist Birdhead The duo of Birdhead, namely Song Tao(b.1979)and Ji Weiyu(b.1980)was founded in 2004. The name of 'Bird head' is...

    Artist

    Birdhead

    The duo of Birdhead, namely Song Tao(b.1979)and Ji Weiyu(b.1980)was founded in 2004. The name of "Bird head" is from a random keyboard tapping to name a file. The duo’s creation is based on but not restricted to photography. Their lens captures everything that can be involved and gradually internalizes their thinking about their own development into the context of images. They combine photo matrix, collage, mounting, installation, photography writing and other various ways to use photos, to present a number of self-renewal and evolved “World of the Birdhead” in different exhibition spaces and environment.

    Selected exhibitions included “Living Cities”, Tate Modern, London, 2017; The 7th Bi-city Biennale of Urbanism Architecture, Shenzhen, 2017; The 6th Moscow Biennale, Moscow, Russia, 2015; New Photography, MoMA, New York, USA, 2012; Reactivation: the 9th Shanghai Biennale, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, 2012; Illuminations, the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2011; 2011 Artist File Exhibition: the National Art Center Contemporary Art Biennale, National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan, 2011. He entered the finalist for the first Hugo Boss Asian Art Award, 2013. Many of his works have entered the collection of Tate Modern, London, Astrup Fearnley, Oslo, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Ullens Foundation. He is now living and working in Shanghai.

  • Artist Mo Yi Born in Tibet in 1958, Mo Yi has been a self-taught photographer since 1981, and lived in...

    Artist

    Mo Yi

    Born in Tibet in 1958, Mo Yi has been a self-taught photographer since 1981, and lived in Tianjin from 1982 to 2010. From the 1980s, Mo Yi began to use his camera to practice street photography in the city. He was a Chinese mainland pioneer who has explicitly used photography in avant-garde art practice. In the form of installation, performance art and so on, he consciously maintains the photographic attribute of creative behavior. The core of his creation revolves around social culture, historical reflection, urban change and exploration of self-body. Mo Yi's works have been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the domestic and abroad, and have been collected by many institutions and individuals, such as Tate Modern, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and so on.

  • Artist Wang Yishu Born in 1973 in Gansu, a native of Liaoning, Wang Yishu graduated from the Chinese Department of...

    Artist

    Wang Yishu

    Born in 1973 in Gansu, a native of Liaoning, Wang Yishu graduated from the Chinese Department of Northwest Normal University in 1995. He worked as a photojournalist for the Southern Weekly and is now a freelance photographer. Wang Yishu is the 2010 Magnum Fellowship winner, and published personal album Possible, Borderless, etc. His works have been exhibited in many important institutions and photo fairs such as San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Paris Photo, the AIPAD Photography Show New York, San Francisco International Photography Expo, Beijing Photo Biennale, Guangzhou Photo Biennale, Lianzhou International Photography Annual Exhibition, etc. His works can be found in many major institutional collections. He is now working and living in Zhejiang and Shanghai.

  • Artist Wei Lai Born in 1973 in Jilin, Wei Lai studied finance in the university. After graduation, he was engaged...

    Artist

    Wei Lai

    Born in 1973 in Jilin, Wei Lai studied finance in the university. After graduation, he was engaged in graphic design, and was an amateur photographer. Wei Lai's photographic works are mainly based on silver gelatin materials. His works has been published in Chinese Photography Magazine, China Photo Press, Fotomen, Pop Photo, Photo World, Photo Shanghai and other media.

    In 2005 and 2009, Wei Lai participated in the Lianzhou International Photography Festival and the "Heaven and Earth: Memory of Reality" photography exhibition at the Songzhuang Art Museum in 2006. He also participated in 2007 Guangzhou Photo Biennale, and held three exhibitions in Beijing respectively in 2005, 2007 and 2008. Other group exhibitions in Beijing include "My Enlarger" in 2009 and "My Enlager II" in 2016. In 2011, he was included in the Chinese Cutting-edge Contemporary Photography Exhibition Top 20 2011 in Hangzhou. In 2005, he participated in the "L' esthetique Aesthetics" group exhibition in Shanghai. The group photo Yesterday Is Also Far Away won the excellent photographer award of the 2017 Pingyao International Photography Exhibition. He is now working and living in Changchun.

  • Artist Yao Yao Yao Yao is a photographer and an editor, living and working in Shanghai. She writes reviews on...

    Artist

    Yao Yao

    Yao Yao is a photographer and an editor, living and working in Shanghai. She writes reviews on photographic exhibitions and works, interviews with Chinese and overseas photographic artists, and has published articles on Wenhui Bao, Oriental Morning Post, Chinese Photography, iWeekly, Numéro China, IDEAT China and others. She has also engaged in photography creation for years and held solo exhibitions at The Mix-Place, Shanghai, IG Art Center, Shanghai, De Pot, Shanghai, and Open Muji, Shanghai. Her works were also exhibited in PHOTOFAIRS Shanghai, Shanghai Urban Space Art Season, and etc.

  • Artist Zeng Han Born in Guangdong in 1974. Zeng Han graduated from the International Journalism and Communications Department of Jinan...

    Artist

    Zeng Han

    Born in Guangdong in 1974. Zeng Han graduated from the International Journalism and Communications Department of Jinan University in 1997; graduated from the "Global Photography" project of the School of Visual Arts, New York City in 2009. From 1997 to 2008, he worked as a photojournalist and editor for newspapers such as New Express and "21st Century Business Herald", and the director of graphics for City Pictorial. He is now engaged in photography practice, art creation, exhibition curating and other activities. Currently he is a freelance artist and independent curator.

    His works have been included in museum exhibitions, art biennials, photography festivals, and gallery exhibitions in more than a dozen countries, including China, the United States, France, Germany, and Australia. Major exhibitions include "True Landscapes", the 15th Lianzhou International Photography Annual Exhibition, Lianzhou, 2019; "Trouble in Paraside", the Research House for Asian Art, Chicago, USA, 2014; "Calling Soul", M97 Gallery, Shanghai, 2008; "Post-Documentary", Shanghai Art Museum and art museum, 2007. Group exhibitions include "Crossover: the Experience of Intersection", Wuhan Art Museum, Wuhan, 2019; "Over Time" video exhibition, Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, Shanghai, 2018; "Ink Painting's Dimension" the Third Exhibition of Contemporary Ink Works, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, 2016; "Chinese Whispers" Uli Sigg Collection Exhibition, Kunstmuseum Bern, Bern, Switzerland, etc. Several series of works have been collected by Shanghai Art Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada, M+ Art Museum, Hong Kong and other institutions and private collectors from all over the world. In 2011, he won the Emerging Award of Chinese Cutting-edge Contemporary Photography TOP20-2011 by the Chinese Photographers Association. He was the curator of the 2017 Guangzhou Image Triennial and the 2012 Singapore International Photography Festival. In 2011, he won the Best Curator of the Golden Bird Award in the 3rd Dali International Film Festival Curator Award. In 2005, he was the curator of the first Lianzhou International Photography Exhibition and won the Outstanding Curator Award of the Year.

  • Artist Zhou Qiang Born in 1992 in Sichuan, China, Zhou Qiang currently lives in Chengdu, Sichuan. He began his photographic...

    Artist

    Zhou Qiang

    Born in 1992 in Sichuan, China, Zhou Qiang currently lives in Chengdu, Sichuan. He began his photographic practice in 2010 and has been working as a documentary photographer since then. As an emerging artist, he has been awarded the 7th Houdenko Prize for Documentary Photography 2019 and the Lucie Awards 2017. He was shortlisted for the 12th Three Shadows Photography Award 2020 and nominated for the Magnum Fellowship in 2018 and 2019. His work has been exhibited in Paris, New York, Japan, Berlin, Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu, and can be found in institutional and private collections.

  • Artist Zhu Hao Born in Shanghai, Zhu Hao graduated from the Department of Drama Literature of Shanghai Theater Academy. In...

    Artist

    Zhu Hao

    Born in Shanghai, Zhu Hao graduated from the Department of Drama Literature of Shanghai Theater Academy. In the early 1990s, his haiku collection First Frost was published in the United States. 

    Zhu Hao's major photograph works include Silent Shanghai, Shadow City, Back Alley of Paradise, The Photosynthesis, Relative Humidity and so on. He has held solo exhibitions and participated in group exhibitions in China and overseas, his works also have been exhibited in Beijing Photo Biennale, Guangzhou Photo Biennale, Lianzhou International Photography Festival, Korea Asian photography Biennial, FotoFreo Australia.

    His publications include Shadow City and Chinese Contemporary Photography Catalogues: Zhu Hao. 

     

    He is now working and living in Shanghai.