Concept for Seeing The Light

Preface of Dong Dong's book Black and White Photographs·

Right before Dong Dong went to the Krasnodar Museum of Contemporary Art to attend the PHOTOVISA International Festival of Photography in Russia, he told me to write a preface for his forthcoming new book. His tone was casual, but sincere and affirmative, as if a subordinate gives a command directly to his superior. Probably he was quite certain: if he just asked me to write it I would never do it, because a painter writes preface for a photographer is like having a finger in every pie.

Dong Dong is a modest, rigorous, delicate and orderly man. He is considerate to others from the bottom of his heart in a way of steady, accurate and relentless. Both of his IQ and EQ are not low. For example: It is said that he had been studying abroad for eight years and made a name for himself, but from the day we knew each other and for so many year, I never heard he spoke English. Not a single word has ever leaped from his mouth, as if he would rather die than speak it. So I began to doubt whether he can speak English. Maybe just like me, what he can say is only "yes", "no", and "good", and if cornered, a "very" before "good" at most. Until in the first half of this year, we met in USA. He was going to attend the famous International Biennial of Photography FOTOFEST in Houston. We went into a random restaurant beside the street. From the owner of the restaurant to waiters, he seemed knowing everyone there. The communication between them was so easy and fluent that I could not help to ask him what his English level is. He answered: apart from a good quarrel with native English speakers, because it would be too much various dialects, slangs and new popular words involved, anything else is no problem.

It is known to the world that photography is a special art discipline but not an independent art form. However, photography has a great influence on various art forms, especially painting. During the first industrial revolution in Europe, accompanied with the emergence of flush toilet, spinning machine, boiler, steam engine, automobile and telephone, daguerreotype was invented as well. The inventor and French painter Daguerre did not expect that it would go beyond facilitating polices' arresting, young people's matchmaking, and curing lovers' lovesickness, to threaten painters' livelihood. Their job was taken by the photo studios. Painter Delaroche even gave a desperate sigh: from today, painting is dead. Writer Alexandre Dumas and Victor Marie Hugo had both been photographed. Daguerre even used hot air balloon to take pictures of the whole Paris, which is impossible for painters to do it in a short time.

There were many art schools in the history of photography over the past two centuries, such as Photography of Paintism, Impressionist Photography, Realistic Photography, Naturalism Photography, Pure Photography, New Materialism Photography, Surrealism Photography, Abstract Photography, Candid Photography, Dada Photography, Subjectivism Photography (also known as Post-War Photography). All these schools were basically derived from painting or derivative of painting, except for Candid Photography. Candid Photography brought forward the idea that photography should keep distance from painting as far as possible so that painters could not imitate. The representative photographer is French photographer Cartier Bresson whom Chinese people are most familiar with. In the contrast, painters had no choice but to create Cubism, so that photographers could not imitate. The representative painter is Spanish painter Picasso whom Chinese people are most familiar with. Before that photography had already been used repeatedly in the classical painting and the early impressionist painting. For example, when Ingre painted his famous oil painting Spring, he let the model take picture in Daguerre's photo studio first, and then painted the painting according to the photo, although not long ago Ingre himself had strongly urged the government to prohibit photography industry. Manet, Degas, Monet were all enthusiasts and beneficiaries of photography. The No.1 artist of today's art world German artist Richter has made the most of photography, and created a new aesthetic approach in the aesthetic categories.

Artistic creation depends on talent, delicate observation and reflection. It is a test of your feelings and judgments. Acquired efforts can only make you know all kinds of equipments, memorize how to use aperture, and burn money to renew equipment as an enthusiast. And then finally you will become an excellent equipment keeper.

No matter in what style and form an artwork is presented, judging whether an artwork or an artist is excellent will come down to the following three aspects: first, its creation idea; second, its techniques; third, its materials. That is what we often say, what to shoot, how to shoot, and what to shoot with. If anyone can have a breakthrough in these three aspects, he or she can be called a master. First of all, whether the creation idea has accurately recorded the times, whether the idea is original, and whether it can pass through the recognition of value judgment. According to the aesthetic judgments, from the moment an artwork is presented in front of people, it will be determined by factual judgment, taste judgment and value judgment. The factual judgment refers to the authenticity and rationality of the event described in the artwork. The taste judgment refers to being in accord with ordinary viewers' taste. The value judgment refers to evaluate the significance and value of an artwork from the perspective of aesthetics, morality and history, and it should reflect the human being's ultimate ideal. Secondly, whether the technique is innovative, original, and regarded as reasonable and unique. Thirdly, whether there is a breakthrough in the use of materials, while it's not making a fuss, hard to believe, or kicking out a cloud of dust.

When we look back the history of modern Chinese photography, there are two masters had a great influence in China. One is Cartier Bresson, the other is Ansel Adams. In 1985, as a legendary person in Chinese photography world, Ansel Adams held his solo exhibition successfully in the National Art Museum of China, and he became the first western gurus who brought original artworks to China. With admiration, the Chinese photographers recognized the charm of zone system.

Dong Dong's works was influenced by Adams, but he has successfully localized it and made it possess the oriental aesthetic characteristics. The photos he took in Utah in USA and Anhui in China can be seen as examples.

Most of Dong Dong's works are landscapes. Just like painting, comparing to figure painting, landscape painting is somewhat passive, because the narrative subject itself does not actively transmit any information, while it all depends upon how the creator express it. The ancients said: 'Learning it from outside nature, getting it from inner mind.' The nature is the natural world, and the inner mind is your understanding of the natural world. Many of Dong Dong's works are his personal understanding of the natural world. Just as he said: 'I always believe that the natural landscapes between heaven and earth are telling stories to people in many ways. In the nature, every river and every mountain have their own personalities, and the interpretation of their personalities could be the motive force to create a style of artistic landscape photography. Looking at our landscape culture from ancient times to the present, we can see how the ancients closely connected the value of their spirits with the natural scenery.' And because of this, Adams successful shot a number of classic landscape photographs, and Fan Kuan, Guo Xi successfully painted the Travelers among Mountains and Streams and Early Spring as the peak of Chinese landscape paintings.

Dong Dong makes the most of the language of photography. His language is precise, delicate and sophisticated. Without being scrappy or touchy-feely, his works still has a strong sense of the times, while a lot of his contemporaries have difficulty to achieve it.

When people are enjoying artworks, they always hope to see more through the work. Their requirement is reasonable. What's irrational is that some works leave nothing behind after you watch them. Through Dong Dong's works, we can see all the elements a photo should have as an artwork, and in addition to it, a cognition of the objective world that only photography can bring up to us.

Zhu Wei

November 2014

你能看到什么

董冬摄影集《灰·界》序言

董冬去克拉斯诺达尔当代艺术博物馆，参加俄罗斯PHOTOVISA国际摄影节，临走的时候嘱我给他即将出版的新书写个序。话说的轻描淡写，但真诚肯定，有下级直接给上级下命令的意思。想必他已拿准了，要是和我商量我还真不写，一画画的给拍照片的写序有狗拿耗子的嫌疑。

董冬做人行事低调，严谨，细腻，有条有理，关心起人来发自内心的体贴周到，稳、准、狠，情商智商都不低。举个例子：据说他在海外留学八年，小有名气。但是自打认识到现在，这么多年从没听他说过英语，且一个单词也没见从他嘴里蹦出来过，惹急了也不说，打死也不说。以至于我开始怀疑他会不会说英语，没准和我一样就会说yes、no、good，逼急眼了最多还能在good前头加个very。直到今年上半年在美国碰着，他要去休斯顿参加著名的休斯顿FOTOFEST国际摄影节，在街上找了家餐厅请我吃饭，他和餐厅老板每位服务员都熟，这顿噼里啪啦的说，我问他您这是说到什么水平了? 答：除了还不能和老外痛痛快快吵架，因为里面有各地不同的方言俚语和随时更新的流行新词儿，其它没什么问题。

摄影作为一门专门的艺术学科但还不是独立的艺术门类，这点世人皆知，但摄影对艺术各个门类的影响很大，特别是绘画。欧洲第一次工业革命，伴随着抽水马桶、纺纱机、锅炉、蒸汽机、汽车、电话的出现，银板摄影也被发明出来。发明摄影的法国画家达盖尔自己也没想到，照片的出现除了便于派出所警察抓人、年轻人介绍对象、情人之间互相思念之外，威胁最大的就是画家自己，活儿被照相馆抢去了。画家德拉罗什甚至发出绝望的感慨：从此，绘画完了。作家大仲马、雨果、维克多·玛丽都被拍过，甚至达盖尔还利用热气球拍摄了巴黎的市容市貌，这点画家一时半会是不可能做到的。

两百年来摄影史上出现过多个艺术流派，如：绘画主义摄影；印象派摄影；写实主义摄影；自然主义摄影；纯粹派摄影；新即物主义摄影；超现实主义摄影；抽象摄影；堪的派摄影；“达达派”摄影；主观主义摄影（又称战后派摄影）。这些流派的产生基本上都是受绘画的影响，也可以说是派生物，唯独堪的派摄影最早提出摄影应尽量与绘画保持距离，最好让画家们无法模仿。代表人物就是中国人民最熟悉的法国摄影家卡蒂埃、布列松。与此相对应的是画家们被逼无奈创造了立体派绘画，目的是为了让摄影家们无法模仿，代表人物也是中国人民最熟悉的，西班牙画家毕加索。在这之前的古典主义绘画和早期印象派绘画曾经多次利用了摄影，安格尔的著名作品《泉》，就是先让模特在达盖尔的照相馆拍了照片然后绘制完成的，在此之前他曾强烈要求政府禁止摄影这一行业。马奈、莫奈、德加都是摄影的爱好者和受益者。当今世界当代艺术的NO1，德国艺术家里希特更是最大限度的利用了摄影，并且创造了一种新的审美方式，上升到了美学范畴。

从事艺术创作靠的是天赋靠的是细腻的观察与思考，考验的是你的感觉和判断能力。后天的努力最多只能让你熟悉各种器材，熟记光圈的使用，烧钱成为器材更新换代的发烧友，撑死了最后也就混成个优秀的器材管理员。

判断艺术作品或者一个艺术家是否优秀，无论作品如何千变万化，以怎样形式出现，是好是坏归根结底都要从这三个方面来衡量：一，创作思路；二，技法；三，材料。也就是我们常说的拍什么，怎么拍，拿什么拍。这三个方面任意一个有所突破，都可以算作大师级人物。首先，创作思路上是否准确地记录了这个时代，而且必须是原创，是否能通得过价值判断。按照美学对作品的判断分类，一件作品一旦拿到人们的面前，首先要通过事实判断、趣味判断和价值判断。事实判断是指艺术作品所描述事件的真伪性，合理性。趣味判断则是照顾普通观看者的喜好。价值判断更是从审美、道德、历史三个方面评判作品的意义和价值，要体现出人类的终极理想；其次，是否在技法上有所创新，且是原创的突破，而且还能被大家认为是合情合理的，是唯一的；第三，在材料上是否有所突破，还不能无病呻吟，装神弄鬼，故弄玄虚。

回顾现代中国摄影历史，有两位摄影大师在中国具有很大的影响力，一个是卡蒂埃·布列松，另一个就是安塞尔·亚当斯。1985年，一直被中国摄影界传为神话的美国摄影家安塞尔·亚当斯成功在中国美术馆举办了自己的个展，成为第一个在中国展出原作的西方大师级人物，中国的摄影人在赞叹声中领略到了分区控制法的魅力。

董冬的作品受亚当斯的影响，但他成功的把它本土化了，使作品具有了东方人的审美特质，例如他在美国犹他州和中国安徽拍摄的一些作品。

董冬的作品大部分以风光摄影为主。与绘画相同，山水画和人物画相比会稍显被动，因为叙事主体本身并不主动传递任何信息，完全看创作者如何主动把握，也就是古人说的“师造化，得心源”。造化指的是自然万物，师乃学习的意思；心源即是你对自然万物的理解。董冬的作品里很多都是他对自然万物的个人理解，正如他所说：“我始终相信风光风景天地间可以从很多层面来讲述故事给大家听，每条江河，每条山脉都有着它们在自然中本身角色的个性，对这种自然性格诠释也可能造就艺术风光流派的原动力。再看我们自己从古至今的山水文化，更可以看到古人是怎么把自己的精神思想存在价值与自然景物紧紧联系起来的。”也正因为如此，亚当斯成功的拍摄了大量的经典风光摄影照片，范宽、郭熙成功地绘制出了中国山水画的顶峰之作《溪山行旅图》、《早春图》。

董冬的作品具备对摄影语言的充分把握。他的语言简练精准、细腻、老辣，少了很多零碎儿和多余的矫情，却使作品同样具有强烈的时代感，这一点是很多与他同代人难以做到的。

人们在欣赏艺术作品的时候，总希望能透过作品看到些什么，这种要求其实并不过分。过分的是有些作品看完就看完了，丝毫留不下什么。透过董冬的作品我们除了能看到一张照片所应具备的作为艺术作品的元素之外，还能够看到它给我们带来的只有通过摄影才能感受到的对客观世界的认知。

朱伟

二零一四年十一月