王宁徳 WANGNINGDE

Photography entered China 171 years ago, when the French photographer Jules Itier took “A Portrait of Qiying, the Governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi” in 1844. Since its colonial introduction, the medium of photography has flourished in the country, developing into a lively field of contemporary art in recent years. Yet the lack of institutional collections of photography has made public access to vintage prints and archival materials very difficult. Such materials are often held privately, and as such, public exhibitions are rare. This has hindered the development of Chinese photography: students lack exposure to historical techniques, researchers lack experience and training, and collectors and institutions lack a concept of the historical value of vintage prints and archives of photography, leading to the loss of even more material.

This Three Shadows exhibition aims to address the situation by providing an unprecedented overview of the history of Chinese photography through vintage prints and archival materials sourced from private collections around the country. The exhibition includes works from Chinese photographers of every era since 1900, and is separated into the following sections: “Republican Era and Wartime Photography”, “Seventeen Years of New China and Ten Years of the Cultural Revolution”, and “Chinese Photography Since the Opening Up and Reform". Accompanying the exhibition will be a related publication and conference, which will reconsider the history of Chinese photography in light of these materials. Through this exhibition, they hope to inspire more interest in and understanding of the value of vintage prints and archival materials for the development of Chinese photography.

Courtesy of Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, for further information please visit http://www.threeshadows.cn.