What does the human figure stand for in landscape photography?

Behind every image, there is more than “V” signs in our hands and big smiley faces, the use of the human figure in landscape photography can be traced back through the development of European Landscape Painting, the Chinese tradition of Shan Shui and German Romanticism. Also, during the lecture we will be discussing the boundaries between land and human, spiritual and religious, our inner and outer soul.

Our lecturer Peter Dixie, a British Photographer, will also be introducing known photographers from around the world, Kalle Kataila (Finland), Weng Fen (China) and Peter Bialobrzeski (German), in order to elicit the meaning of the human figure in landscape.

The lecture will be held on the 21st of November (Saturday), 3pm at kunst.licht gallery.

Titled “Super Shanghai”, this workshop will give students the chance to work the streets of Shanghai side-by-side with a Pulitzer price nominated professional documentary photographer and photo journalist who also happens to be a just wonderful, warm and amazing human being

The hands on training will be embedded into discussions about technique and equipment, a historical overview and intensive critique of the students’ current work and their assignment to shoot “Super Shanghai”.

The total cost of the workshop will be 2500 RMB per seat and there will be only 12 seats available.

To learn more about Susana Raab click here. Also download the workshop outline in English and Chinese.

See you shooting “Super Shanghai”!

To apply for this workshop, please send us a short statement about yourself and 10-20 low resolution images.

Contact: T 21 624 907 37, doris (at) kunstlicht.sh

Susana Raab is a documentary photographer who began her career as a photojournalist in Washington, DC covering politics.  She worked for the New York Times Washington bureau for four years (where she was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of a shooting on Capitol Hill) before attending graduate school at Ohio University School of Visual Communications.  While in graduate school, she interned at the Palm Beach Post during the 2004 hurricane season and her work there was part of a team package on the hurricanes that earned the Post the distinction of finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in feature photography.

In Ohio, she began two long-term projects: Consumed: Fast Food in the US; and Off-Season: America at Leisure.  These projects have received much recognition from the White House News Photographers Association, The Ernst Haas/Golden Light Awards, the Center (formerly Santa Fe Center for Photography), American Photo, Photo District News, and Photo Espana, among others.  Her work is widely exhibited, both nationally and internationally, most recently at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo in Madrid, and the Noorderlicht Photofestival in the Netherlands.

More information about Susana Raab can be found at www.susanaraab.com

2009 nextkunst.licht exhibition is the first of a series of exhibitions dedicated to seeking out the most promising talent among a young generation of Chinese photographers and giving them the opportunity to present their work before an international audience.

The first edition of nextkunst.licht will feature the works of five artists: Fei Tian, Ge Fang, Sun Yanchu, Tang Like, and Wen Jian.

The exhibition is open to the general public on:
June 20th-September 19th 2009, 11am-7pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, June 20, 4 – 6 pm
Location: 210 North Wulumuqi Road, Shanghai, China

The exclusive M1NT Shareholder’s Club in Shanghai provided the perfect backdrop for a very special art afternoon with Shen Wei. Selected guests enjoyed the reception with food creations by head chef Ian Pengelley and the artist’s one hour lecture on the successful series "Almost Naked" and the upcoming "Chinese Sentiment".

The workshop is open to practicing photographers and advanced students in photography. Participants will be selected by kunst.licht Gallery curators and Shen Wei based on materials submitted for review. The workshop will take place in the kunst.licht Gallery space in Shanghai from February 5th – 8th, 2009.

To ensure personal attention and individual teaching the workshop is strictly limited to 10 participants. Participants of the workshop must have a sufficient body of work both in quality and quantity to bring to the class critique. The participants will also have the opportunity to be selected as one of the next.kunstlicht artists if applicable.

You can download the workshop curriculum and further details (PDF) in English and Chinese. Please submit a brief biography and 5 – 10 samples of your work (JPEG ONLY) to workshop (at) kunstlicht.sh. The cost of the workshop is RMB 2000. Participants living outside Shanghai are responsible for their own travel expenses and accommodation.

To find out more about next.kunstlicht, please visit the new website. Please also download the application form [PDF].

Check it out if you happen to be around!

Times Square, New York City

Yemi by Shen Wei

The roll of honour

All the people in your pictures behave very naturally. They face the camera as if they were facing themselves in a mirror. How do you achieve this? Have you sometimes also encountered difficulties? And how do you deal with these difficulties?

Gaining the trust of my subjects is essential for them to behave natural. Usually, I communicate with them intensively so that both sides do not feel embarrassed. Of course, a few times I have encountered some difficulties but they could all be sorted out.

What kind of people are you interested in for this series? Are there any specific characteristics that catch your eyes? If so what are these characteristics?

I have an instinctive curiosity about people. When I was little, I used to observe people on the bus. My subjects are from different classes, different races and different backgrounds. What I’m interested in is each person’s authenticity.

You are already working on the series “Almost Naked” for five years now. About this series you said: “what I want to analyze and explore is spiritually nakedness rather than physically nakedness.” What is this spiritually nakedness that you’re trying to capture? Can you further explain this?

Even though my subjects wants to reveal themselves and want to be understood through my pictures; in their physical or emotional nakedness they are still instinctively trying to hold back.  I can see this internal struggle in their eyes and can tell from their behavior. Not knowing what they’re hiding, I can see the vulnerability of human nature at this very moment. This is exactly the “Almost Nakedness” I am looking for.

You said: “The more images there are in the series, the clearer the content of the series becomes.” As Almost Naked is now in its fifth year, have you gained some new understanding and reflections upon it?

Nakedness can reveal itself in a direct physical way as well as in more abstract ways, it depends. Sometimes it takes all of my intuition to try to understand the people in my images.

Joey

According to your observation, what are the differences between Chinese and American in human nature, their desires, emotions and instincts?

Due to a different historical background and different conditions, people in China and America have different ways of expressing their feelings. Chinese people are more emotionally reserved while Americans are more open in showing how they feel.

When did you go to America to study photography? Did your understanding of photography changed during your years in America? What do you think is the most important thing in people photography?

I went to America in 2000 for further studies. I was a major in design and besides a personal interest I had little knowledge of photography. It was in my second year in college that I decided to focus on photography. I’m someone who always tries to face creation and the learning processes openly. I must have tried nearly every combination of method and material so my understanding of photography rose gradually. Personally, my favorite people photography is of that sentimental kind that can express reality and nature.

Can you share some of your experience, like some teachers’ words you remember or some masters’ articles that inspired you?

Every teacher gave me some inspiration, some more, some less. Even though some of them could not understand what I was trying to do, I gained some useful insights from their comments. Photography became something special for me after a lesson about Diane Arbus. I was deeply impressed by her pictures. So I made up my mind to become an art photographer, trying to record the significance of life.

Do you have some advices for those who’re planning to study photography abroad?

One should choose a college according to the connection between his/her own style and the style of photography at the school. Every college has different characteristics and goals in its photography major. Extensive research is the key to finding a suitable college.

Jody

Do you have new plans? What are your plans for the future?

I’m working on my new series “Chinese Sentiment”, still in the blueprint stage. I think an artist’s career needs patience and a long term perspective. I hope that more people will see my pictures in the future and that my pictures will touch them.

Do you think a contemporary photographer should manage himself? Or focus on creation?

Creation and management are both essential. Creation is important while management gives creation its full scope.

New trends surface all the time in America. Are there recently some new trends in style and methodology in people photography?

Sure there are trends in artistic people photography, but always inexplicit. In comparison, trends and styles in the fashion photography circle change much more rapidly. Sometimes it even feels like every photographer is creating a new trend.

Thank you very much!

Congratulations from everyone at the gallery!

Do you like the artwork at kunst.licht? Are you about to start collecting photo art? Are you looking for a very special fine art present?

Then we might have something for you. The kunst.licht Mini Open Edition is available now exclusively at kunst.licht photo art gallery shanghai. Each kunst.licht Mini is a hand-crafted piece of art personally selected by our artists, masterfully finished in k.l.sec (Diasec style) quality and available for only 288 RMB each. We are confident that we can offer you with the kunst.licht Mini Open Edition a special experience of fine photo art; be it for your personal collection or as a very special gift for good friends.

Let’s start with a kunst.licht Mini!

See it in the k.l shop

Joe McNally is described by American Photo Magazine as "perhaps the most versatile photo journalist working today" and is listed as One of the 100 Most Important People in Photography. He was also inducted by Kodak into their Legends Online archive and Nikon honored him by placing him on their prestigious list known as Legends Behind the Lens.

In this 70 minute long video he talks about many aspects of his work and gives insights into his long years of experience as a professional photographer.

Tell us something about yourself.

My name is Sven Muentel, German, and almost 41 years old. I’m not a photographer.

That’s an interesting thing to say, considering the fact that you are showing photographs in a photo gallery.

Yeah, true (laughs). I’m not trying to be especially witty or something. It’s just that I don’t see myself as a photographer. I work in photography but I think that my intentions in working with the medium are different from what a photographer might want to achieve. If visual artist wasn’t such a vanilla expression, I guess you could call me that.

What are your intentions when making photographs?

At the moment my photographs are highly subjective. I’m not interested in depicting the world as it is. I don’t believe in the truth of photographs and rather use the medium to express things that are inside me. Inner landscapes, if you like.

What do you mean by the “truth of photographs”?

Photography is still widely believed to be an objective medium that shows the world as it is. But in fact it is the most widely abused medium of all, not even television is coming close (yet). I think that photography is not so much about truth or reality but about what people want to be true or real.

Can you elaborate a little, give me some examples?

Sure. The manipulation of photographs is almost as old as photography itself. From the very beginning ingenious people have thought of ways to manipulate their negatives. It all started innocent enough with portrait photographers trying to flatter their customers with “fine-tuned” photographs. Since then the manipulation of photographs has permeated all levels of every culture and society ever having taken photographs. And it always was and is popular with the rich and powerful. I’ve chosen some pictures that are of interest in China but these things have happened and do happen everywhere:

The Gang of Four were among those attending the funeral service for Chairman Mao in 1976

After the downfall of the "Gang" (which included Mao’s widow Jiang Qing) they were airbrushed out

But isn’t that more the exception that proves the rule? What about photo journalism and press photography?

Right, that is where the line should be drawn. I think that in the case of a journalistic context where one tries to document and witness something, image manipulation has no place and the image should be as raw as possible. But is this the truth? I think not. It is still just a crop taken from a three-dimensional ever flowing reality, a discontinued moment (think of the recent CNN photos from Tibet). And then there is also the context that gives a picture meaning but at the same time also distorts reality. Have you ever noticed how the perception of an image can change just by adding different subtitles? Or by removing them altogether? And anyway, it seems that the distinction between information and entertainment gets blurrier all the time. The advent of infotainment is something we all have to live with.

Let’s return to your photographs. Your recent series “Hong Kong I” and “Am Meer” are themselves bold examples of image manipulation.

That’s right. I often use digital post-processing to achieve the results I want. It really is a process I’m going through with these pictures. You just have to know when to stop. The computer is today what the dark room was only a few years ago. People have always experimented with dodging and burning, with different chemicals, different papers and film. Just think about Man Ray, how he has pushed photography to completely new heights.
Photographers and artists nowadays have tremendous possibilities to give shape to their individual vision and personally I think that this is a great development. Just go and read Ansel Adam’s “The Print” to get a feeling for how difficult it was in the past to achieve satisfying and (maybe even more important) consistent results. Of course with all these possibilities comes also a big responsibility. Just because I can do something does not mean that I should do it or that I am allowed to do it. Again I draw the line between art photography and documenting photography, between subjectivity and (apparent) objectivity.

The award-winning, and fabricated, photograph
"Qinhai-Tibet railway opening green passageway for wild animals"

A lot of people seem to frown upon the use of digital post-processing.

Yes, I know. I get this with the new series, especially with “Am Meer”. But frowning is good because it makes you think (laughs) and engages you. Nothing is worse than a picture that stirs no emotions whatsoever in you. All the software in the world can’t save you when you don’t have something to say in the first place. Then all you might get is just generic eye-popping effects and a hollow feeling. Digital image processing software is just a tool like the chemicals in a traditional dark room and you should never let the tools make the artistic decisions for you.
However it seems that for a lot of people the dark room with its mysterious smells, odd equipment and red light still conveys a special magic and atmosphere that the computer – because almost everyone has one and because it’s often more a nuisance than a revelation – can’t hold itself up against. But a tool is a tool. Let me and Evgeny Kissin play the same Grand Piano and you’ll immediately know what I mean (smiles).

What future projects are you thinking about?

At the moment I’m very interested in the perception and notion of time, how time flows and what it means. It’s again a very personal thing. When you’re already around for more than forty years these things start to become more important.

Thank you very much!

1. When did you start to get interested in photography?

Five years ago.

2. What made you start the "I Live In Here" project?

In the last ten years Shenzhen’s population has been expanding rapidly. People from all over the country stream into this city, the city’s population has already surpassed the 15 million mark. This huge population base, together with Shenzhen’s unique location facing overseas, creates a vast variety of different living conditions. Different culture context communities – Hakkas, Guangdong, Central China, colony culture and western culture are all melt together, constituting some kind of giant database of living conditions.

I witnessed the rapid change of Shenzhen’s urbanization and I wanted to record it with my camera. Susan Sontag said that "collecting pictures means collecting the world”. I actually am collecting Shenzhen.

3. Is there a direct link between your "City Capture" blog and the "I Live In Here" project?

I think that the “I Live In Here” project with the variety of living conditions in Shenzhen corresponds with my blog “City and Urbanization in my eyes”. So it is a sub-project of my blog.

4. Is the perspective you take in the "I Live In Here" series in your opinion subjective or objective? Have you added elements of your own to the images or were you trying a more documentary approach? Does that mean that the audience needs to value your work by themselves?

The project can be divided into two phases: the first phase was a down-to-earth documentary style shooting. Under the premise of trying to guarantee quality, I was pursuing quantity. But after documenting 150 households, I started to take into consideration the social status and circumstances of my subjects. So in the second phase, the work is more influenced by my personal views.

Shenzhen – Home to more than 15 million people.
Most of whom are migrant workers.

5. How do you choose your subjects? I have heard that you have asked hundreds of people to get the chance to photograph them at home?

My subjects all have something in common. They are more or less anxious about the transition period China is facing at the moment. They are not sure about the future, even the rich people. Even after they are in possession of wealth and social resources some of them are considering going abroad. It was difficult trying to take their photographs. A lot of persuasion was involved from my side, sometimes successful, sometimes not.

6. Do you have certain degrees of interactions with your subjects? How do you get them to forget about the camera? 

I chat with them before each shooting and I set up camera and tripod at the last moment. I do my homework before I go to see them; I try to find topics and subjects that we have in common. If they are foreigners or local Chinese from Guangdong province who don’t speak mandarin, I bring a translator.

7. What were you looking for, visually and in terms of content?

The visual style can be seen in a pure documentary context. Considering the form, my photos are what Benjamin called “products of an era of mechanical reproduction", but I know that the content of the pictures is of a way more sensual nature.

8. If you were to describe yourself and your work to a stranger, what would you say?

My name is Shen, Xiaoming, I live in Shenzhen. I take photos of Chinese cities and their urbanization.

9. Which of the masters of photography do you admire the most?

Quite a lot, can’t list them all, mostly foreigners.

10. What is next for you? What projects/subjects are you currently working on?

A project about the status quo of Rural Christians in Jiangsu and Zhejiang province.

Thank you very much!

Please also note this article about Shenzhen in The New York Times (published December 19th, 2006)

1. What first inspired your interest in photography? What continues to inspire you?

The possibility to catch authenticity fascinates me. To conserve scenes and to document them.
The human being, groups of people – how and where they live, work and where they spend their free time. Often also with an ironic look.     

2. How would you describe your photographic vision? What kind of message do you try to impart?

I think that every day on our planet there is an infinite number of scenes, situations and moments happening. So I don’t have to stage any photos. My motto is “Reality kicks!”.
I see myself as someone searching for situations. Then I wait there for “the moment”, always in close contact with the event.

3. Are there people (photographers, writers, artists, family & friends) who had or have an influence on how you approach photography?

Photographers: Martin Parr, Eliott Erwitt, H. Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa – generally the whole photo agency Magnum.

4. Do you feel that your identity changes when you lift the camera to your eye? Do you act differently?

No, I only become more concentrated and clearer. Often there is also a lot of adrenaline released, like when you’re playing roulette and the ball starts rolling.

5. A lot of your work takes place in close contact with your subjects. How do you approach people on the street?

I rarely speak to people before I take photographs. They begin otherwise to pose and then they act not authentic. I often wait and if possible do not look through the lens while photographing so that everything seems more unobtrusive.

6. Is there a difference in the way you approach paid assignments and personal projects?

Most of the time I find my own topics and commercialize the pictures afterwards. In the case of assignments the moment of tension is often missing – the "unexpected" for me. No client is as good a designer and art director as reality itself.

7. What is the most memorable experience you’ve had as a photographer?

During a church service 500 witnesses of Jehovah have sung and prayed for me and my camera, all on my command…

8. Is there something like the “photograph not taken” in your work? Where and how do you draw the line in what to shoot and what not to shoot?

War, personal misery and criminalistic photography are not my topic.

9. Tell us about some of your photos. Why do you like them and what’s the story behind them?

“Bahia Carnival” is a black and white photo that I shot on a roaring night in Bahia de Salvador. Here one can really get a feeling for the muggy, erotic and rhythmic world of northern Brazil. And in the same way the anarchy and boundlessness that is hovering over the carnival there.

 “India Bus station” was made at a bus station in the heart of India where I arrived after spending two days on the bus – for approx. 7,50 US dollars. These boys were the first to greet me at the windows of the bus. The clear looks and tidy shirts and hairdos fascinated me, here in this faraway region.

I photographed “Ipanema” on a Sunday afternoon at Posto 6 at the beach of Ipanema. The poorer inhabitants of the Zona Norte of Rio like to come to this part of the beach to enjoy the waves of the South Atlantic Ocean. Due to the underexposure the bathing people lose their individuality and become timeless, anonymous beings in a faraway place.

10. Where is your photography going? What future photographic projects are you excited about?

In summer I will photograph the bathing-culture on the Crimea at the Black Sea. And in Sevastopol, the harbor city of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, I will do a documentary project on night life.

I’d like to design a photo book about bathing-cultures worldwide.

Peer, thank you very much for your time!