Conference with Jean Loh, hosted by the Cercle Francophone de Shanghai at island6

Last Tuesday night, island6 offered to host the  Cercle Francophone de Shanghai, a prominent expat organisation, for a conference led by Jean Loh (Beaugeste / Sciences Po) on Photography in China, followed by a wine-tasting and a selection of appetizers provided by Patisserie de France and WineMall.

The event was a great success, with positive reactions to the gallery space, the hosting, and obviously to the conference itself.  Jean Loh talked for an hour or so about what he believed were the three distinct stages in Chinese photography, as represented by women of influence: a very well constructed and thrilling talk which extensively explored these different periods, finishing on the current state of modern photography in China and its relevance to developmental issues (as a means of evaluating its culture’s ethnography, environmental issues, etc.). We were able to meet Mr. Loh for a quick interview after the conference (see review after the pictures of the event).

INTERVIEW WITH JEAN LOH 

Burgeoning interest in Chinese Photography

Jean Loh’s interest in Chinese photography can be seen as having materialized in 2001, when he attended the  Pingyao International Festival. Since then, he has been in constant contact with Chinese photographers and museum directors of various regions across mainland China, encouraging them to organize photography exhibitions and to start collecting photography. In 2003, the  Guangdong Museum of Art held its first photography exhibition, “Humanism in China”, showing 600 Chinese photos that went into the first collection of photography works by a museum in China.

Jean Loh has been involved many times as a curator for photo exhibitions in museums (Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, etc) Beaux Arts in Shanghai, and participated in the burgeoning photography festivals in China, such as Pingyao, Lianzhou, Lishui, Dali and Caochangdi, etc. He has also started promoting Chinese photography as art director of  Beaugeste Gallery on Taikang Lu in Shanghai, showing works from local photographers and by Western photographers having worked in China. The current exhibition for example shows stunning black & white portraits of the Shaolin Warrior-monks made by Spanish photographer Isabel Munoz in 1998. His personal interest lies in humanistic, documentary and historical photography, in addition to socially responsible “photographie engagée” such as Lu Guang’s work on Pollution in China, concerned with developmental issues.

The current state of photography in China

Jean Loh argues that while there is an increasing interest in “art” photography, the “market” in China is still “immature”. As such, there are no museums exclusively dedicated to photography, not even with a photo department or a dedicated photo curator. The Lishui Festival in Zhejiang has been trying to set up a photo museum but it is far, very far, from what can be defined as a museum in New York or in Paris.  At best there are four or five galleries showing photography in Beijing and in Shanghai. And only one auction house dedicated to photography sales, with uneven success each year.

Like modern art, the market is still “immature” – but hopefully, photography in China will one day be appreciated to the same extent as painting and traditional arts.

Future Trends?

Loh observes that young photographers have increasingly been returning to more traditional forms of photography (i.e. using film-based camera and producing silver gelatin prints), a trend which he would like to see continue. What could be lacking, in his opinion, is perhaps the inclusion of deeper themes and socially engaging issues in their exploration, which would undoubtedly enrich the emotional dimension of each photograph, such as those found in the “photographies militantes”.

On the other hand, this is still a positive move away from the unstoppable widespread generalization of digital photography, which allows for excessive and “blind” shooting without actually having to pay attention to the importance of each specific shot. To illustrate this, Jean Loh points out that with a traditional film-based camera you might only have 12 or maximum 36 shots on the roll, so this teaches you to look more carefully with your eye, to capture the more elaborate, better composed, or simply more meaningful pictures.

China, with over 1.3 billion inhabitants, will save film-based photography, like it has done for Bordeaux wines and Cognac.

On behalf of everyone at island6, we would like to thank Jean Loh and the CFS for a great event. See you soon!