Photography book: The photos must have souls
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In those days， most of the photography books were textbooks. Yet， in fact， the topics range of photography books could be wider， and the content could be deeper. The Nationality of the “Inside China” series photography books published by China Renmin University Press focuses on the topic of nationality and reveals the author’s exploration on the nationality or national character of the Chinese. As soon as it was published， various kinds of comments about it appeared on the internet. Some of scholars who are engaged in sociology and journalism I know are also interested in it and people start to think about the nationality through that book.
Actually， except photography works of the famous photographers like Capa and Bresson， those works of little known photographers are difficult to enter in the market. Previously， I checked the art books on Amazon and found there are only 4 kinds of photography books in the top 100 sales and one of them is One Day of the Chinese published by China CITIC Press. In the photography category， there are a few photography books of the same kind. What people pay more attention to is the learning of techniques for photography. And there are relevant fewer readers of photographic history and photographic concepts. While as one category of arts， the value of photography will not change with the popularization of photographic techniques.
Nationality， which is also called national character， is a general concept of the psychology and behavior of the citizens in one country or the members of one nation formed in a special social and historical condition. When I planed this book， some questions often occurred to me and made me think. The study on nationality reached its peak in 1970s and then it gradually cooled down. To the Chinese， the discussion on nationality originated from by Lu Xun and the “Ah Q spirit” were widely considered as the nationality of every citizen. But now， the reform and opening-up policy opened the gate of our country and makes the material life of Chinese become richer， with bringing in and taking out underway. Chinese people no longer live in a closed society， and various kinds of cultures， ideas， behaviors， and living methods mix together. Dose the nationality still have distinctive Chinese characteristics？ Or are there still more negative aspects？ The book explains these questions with pictures and words.
The photography book should contain technique， but only technique is far from enough. It should show the soul of photos entirely to the readers. At present， the photography books become more and more popular， while a good book should have its soul. A good photography book also has its thought and innovation. The author of the book tries to express the nationality with photographs， which is a quite difficult task. Generally， if the nationality is showed by photos， it will be over-generalized and difficult to keep its objectivity. But during the publishing， I found that every photo adopted by the author can’t be defined with good or bad. And the readers may guess and create stories behind the photos， think about themselves or people around them and think about the value judgment of the truth， the good， the beautiful and the ugliness. That is the charm of photography. Most of the words in this book are the imagination of the first reader rather than the uncovering or interpretation of the photos. So， one of the major attractions for the readers is that they can interpret the photos first.
More importantly， the book shows the readers the nationality with photos， which is an innovation in the whole press. It is a shortcut of interpreting the nationality. Photos taken at lots of moments in different times formulate the history， and every photo is like one drop of water or one grain of sand. They not only show us the nationality objectively， but also make the nationality more lively and infectious.
I have read a lot of photography books and I know that there are many cultural connotations behind the composition and light of the photographic technique which quires the photographers to have more humanistic care and ability to apperceive the society. Photographers should be sensitive about art and also have the cultural accumulation and rational thinking. If a photographer is lacking in cultural accumulation and rational thinking， he would take a part as a whole， make arbitrary decisions with photos and narrow his way of photography.
When publishing this book， I know that every photographer and viewer will put his own nationality in reading this book. No matter how objective and emotionless of the photos， they will represent some value orientation， and the value orientation shows the insight and standpoint of the photographer. So the perspective of the viewer is one way to explore the nationality. To keep the objectivity of the book， we also collected some works of other photographers and even selected some foreign photographers’ works to complete the exploration of the nationally.
Hope the photography series “Inside China” will make every reader have some meaningful thinking.