A small river in Jiangnan slowly backflow time and up, memory roaming through the fine sand shallows, into the deep and thick years: summer evening lotus pond lotus bloom all over the young boys and girls swinging boats, fondle lotus, lotus pick lotus. Girls wet clothes all the laughter crisp, good water boys simply teal water inverted Zha Onion, stirring up the golden sunshine in the pond fragmentation ......
Zhou Dongjing photographed the "silent river", taking me back to my hometown a long time ago, nearly lost in my childhood. Things come one after another: long benches, straw bundles, wooden bathtubs, firewood paths, Ruo leaves, pomelo trees, stove pots and pans, nests for chickens and ducks, red candles for ancestors ...... These household objects left in the image, used for a long time will be stained with human feelings.
Novalis said, people are always with nostalgia impulse to go around looking for home. The economy is growing, and the countryside is receding. The things to which emotions and spirituality are attached are being lost, machinery is rumbling, and the south of the river is drifting away. What Zhou Dongjing photographs is not only nostalgia, but also the mutual search of image and mind, and the capture of one's own sense of life.
Not only is the nostalgia for things that are different, but it is also the eternal perplexity of knocking on human life: the river of time passes away like a river, leaving behind childhood, homes, boats, lotus ponds, and the pomelo trees that can be picked every year for food, where is it going to run to? People in this rolling river, what can be done, what can be retained?
In this yesterday's residual dream shadow, Zhou Dongjing to revisit may be this person can always live, the earth is stable, cooking smoke and rice, lotus leaves, all things sympathetic to the emotional conversion of the place it. I am particularly fond of the butterfly chasing the flower in the picture, which is born out of a dream and is the flower of life, and it still carries all the secrets and beauty of the past life.
The butterfly is dancing in the dream, and the fragrance of the flowers is like the old days, so please let me stay a little longer!
Tao: Your previous works were presented in black and white, but this group of "Silent River" is in color, can you talk about your views on black and white photography and color photography?
Zhou: Black and white looks more pure, it is easier to unify in a breath. Color will be more informative, you can see the time and temperature. However, if you can always choose a form of photography, I think it's still a little bit more toned down.
Tao: from the photos you have a very good classical aesthetic, and there is a kind of melancholy lonely temperament. What role do these qualities play in your creative process?
Tao: What does photography mean to you? Is it a way to relieve your own repression and release your unsettled passion?
Zhou: It's a bit of both, I guess. After a long period of time, I think about going out and letting go of the wind. I hope to use it to express some unspeakable people, things or emotions. But also often feel the efficacy and square dance in the hands of the fan in the hands of the grandpa, the sword in the hands of the grandpa is also about the same.
Tao: So what is a good photo like in your mind?
Zhou: This different context may have a different view, a beautiful landscape photo will also like to see, but can trigger thinking about the question, implicit and implicit photos more impressive. Personally, I prefer quiet images with space for imagination. I'm not sure how much I'm going to be able to do this, but I'm going to be able to do it, and I'm not going to be able to do it.
Amoy: This group of "Silent River" is very quiet, no one is in the picture, there are some residual shadows, so the choice is a kind of "object speech"?
Zhou: This is a village in the process of demolition, and there are very few people living there. Sometimes you can't even walk for half a day without encountering a person, so there are very few images of people, so I just got rid of them. The static objects may also be more in line with my state of mind at that time, it is more like the picture that I have flashed many times when I first woke up from sleep.
Tao: The world is changing dramatically, how do you see this change and what can photography do in this change?
Zhou: Photography should not be able to do anything, for me personally, it may be to keep some time memory and seek a short break from the reality of self-comfort.
Tao: What works of art or photography have touched and influenced you along the way?
Zhou: Now look at the photography works less and less shoot also less, also did not do a systematic study of the regulation, the circle of you and Mao Da photography state is always let me very fascinated, but also in the has been encouraging and influencing me to continue to shoot.
Writing: Tao Xi
Photo: Zhou Dongjing
- Sioux City Chronicles
(2020/09/18)
033: The Lakeshore of Confusion
040: I Came from the Alley
050: The Old Story of Panmen
065: A Quiet Encounter
068: The View of Suzhou (Above)
069: The View of Suzhou (Below)
077: There is a City Wading Through Water
078: There is a City Walking Through the Long Street
081: There is a City Encountering the Water and Stacking the Bridges
085: Spring and Autumn Under the Pagoda in There is a City
086: There is a City A Dream in the Garden
090: There's a City: Sometimes Flowers and Trees
093: There's a City: The Living Spirits Have No Words
094: There's a City: A Meeting in a Pink Water
100: There's a City: A Hundred Changes in Life
116: The Walking Man Mao Dai: Everything Grows Up
118: The Alien Xiao Qiang: Every Picture Is a Fireworks is a firework
"Color Shadow Circle" Issue 276
Submission/Collaboration: scjs2500@163.com