影展：LOMO YUANMIN 那么元敏

LOMO YUANMIN – SO YUANMIN

Far ahead of 2010’s World Expo, from September to November 2009 the Beaugeste Gallery has chosen to present the most Haipai of Shanghai photographers,  universally recognized and respected by his peers (*), Lu Yuanmin (born in 1950) and his most creative work so far : his vision of Shanghai through the viewfinder of his Lomo camera.

Starting in 2006 and for two years Lu Yuanmin, the most humanist and most classical, the most intimate photographer in China, who has been relentlessly photographing his Longtang fellowmen and his beloved Suzhou Creeks, has given up his old Seagull camera for a small Lomo. He then set out for a unprecedented creative exercise, carried away by the ease and the freedom brought by this semi gadget. He only stopped the Lomo shooting after he had used up his stock of over 500 rolls of China-made negatives and could no longer find any supply as the factory had closed down.

The exercise resulted in an astonishing “film noir” rich in tension and intensity, a very “black” vision of Shanghai in the sense of a thriller – (we remember Lu Yuanmin first job was projectionist in a cinema in 1968).

In this movie all sorts of characters form a strangest parade: mysterious Shanghai girls hiding their identity behind fancy sunglasses, couples in love or in fight, an elf-like girl picking her nose, an angel-like girl spread her wings, a bunch of dogs take part in this parade: two of them compete in lifting legs, a giant poodle threatens to devour the lens of the camera, a grand-ma lost in translation talking to a plastic doggie…the multiple faces of our microcosm revealed through the Lomo’s dark rings.

Lu Yuanmin was born under the sign of the tiger, says Professor Lin Lu, famous critic, but he is kind and gentle as a lamb.  What we see in his Lomo series are the claws of a hungry wolf, the eyes of a lynx on the prowl, and the mocking irony of an alley cat that is watching us from above yet with a touch of tenderness.

To paraphrase Jack Kerouac’s introduction to Robert Frank’s The Americans, we can say: “the humor, the sadness and joy, the EVERYTHING-ness, the Shanghai-ness, it’s all in these pictures”.

Lomo Yuanmin, it is so Yuanmin.

 (*) Lu Yuanmin was awarded the Shafei Prize in 2008, the most authoritative photography awards in China.

 30 photos in black & white

Gelatin Silver prints 20cm x 30cm

Unique vintage edition on Xiamen photographic paper dated 1993 no longer in production

Exhibition from Septembre 19th to November 20th 2009

Galerie beaugeste_photo

210 Taikang Lu – immeuble 5 espace 519

Shanghai

LOMO YUANMIN那么元敏 

2006年起的两年时光，这位中国最人本、最经典、最亲近主题的摄影师，曾经因为拍摄他最熟悉的弄堂里的上海人和他最喜欢的苏州河而出名的陆元敏，放弃了他的海鸥而选择了一个小LOMO——虽带点儿时尚味道。

因为爱上了LOMO的简单、轻松与自由，陆元敏玩了一场前所未有的创作游戏。他一共拍了五百多卷国产胶卷，直到生产胶卷的工厂倒闭了，他再也卖不到新货才肯罢休。拍摄的结果给大家带来一个震撼——一部充满张力的作品。通过LOMO的黑圈子，我们看到一部上海“黑色小说”般的电影。我们不会忘记陆元敏最初还是个电影放映员。通过他的LOMO，街头上的狗狗撒尿芭蕾舞，躲在墨镜后面的上海妹妹，白翅天使般的小女孩，挖鼻子的小精灵，恋爱或吵闹的情侣，带着面具的小区大亨，对着史努比发愁的阿姨，都打扮成电影人物出现在镜头前。

著名评论家林路说过，陆元敏生于虎年，却有羔羊一般的善良。但在LOMO YUANMIN里，我们看到他对猎物虎视眈眈，像如饥似渴的张开爪子的狼，或高高在上的夜猫子对着我们人间的荒唐冷嘲热讽。

让我们借用雅克·凯鲁阿克在罗伯特·弗兰克的《美国人》序言里的一句话形容之：幽默、伤感与欢乐，千景万象，一种上海味道，都融在这些照片里了。

这就是《那么元敏》。

 (*) 陆元敏获2008年沙飞奖，中国最有权威性的摄影奖。

上个月收到的邀请函，一直未抽空去。下周去~~~

No related posts.