Luo Bonian lived from 1911 to 2002. Born into a family of county
magistrates, upon graduating from school he became a clerk at the
Bank of China. In the same period, he began taking photographs. In
1934, he published the work “Drawing Water from a Well,”an early
example of nude photography in China. His works evoke both Eastern
and Western techniques and are permeated by traditional Chinese
aesthetics. He captured scenic landscapes, people, animals, and still
objects through his lens, and he made experimental studies influenced
by the New Art Movement. He is the forefather of montage photography
in contemporary China. His representative work includes “Drawing
Water from a Well,” The Spring Which Began to Find Vent,”and “Heavy
Loads and Distant Journeys.”
