The world will welcome this. Chinese American photographer Liu Xiangcheng: Reflecting China's diversity and even complexity in China | World | Liu Xiangcheng
"I am fortunate enough to become a 'translator' of culture and art, introducing the world I know through photos and explaining what China really is to people outside of China." Liu Xiangcheng said, "This job is undoubtedly difficult. Someone told me, 'Things are better done than not.' With this encouragement, I try to do a little bit."
At the age of 72, Liu Xiangcheng has won awards such as the Pulitzer Live News Photography Award, the Overseas Journalists Club Award, and Paris Photography, one of the 99 most influential photographers in contemporary photography. He founded the Shanghai Photography Art Center in 2015. His camera witnessed the group portrait of students studying in the brightly lit Tiananmen Square after the resumption of the Chinese college entrance examination, and also recorded the scene of 106 year old "Father of Chinese Pinyin" Zhou Youguang writing "China" in mid air.
The documentary photography collection "Liu Xiangcheng's Lens, Era, and People" launched by Shanghai Culture Publishing House selected 190 works from the eponymous exhibition currently being held at the Pudong Art Museum. This photography collection in China has the largest number of Liu Xiangcheng's photography works and the widest range of themes, and sold out the first print in just a few days.
At the new book sharing event held at the flagship store of Duoyun Academy, Liu Xiangcheng took the stage and raised his phones one by one in the reader's seat, annotating the era of "everyone can take photos". In such an era, what is a photographer?
"I accompanied my spouse to dinner and walked from Huashan Road to Hunan Road. I saw two ladies dancing square dancing. Their figures were so graceful, and I quickly took out my phone, thinking that the shutter speed was too slow." Liu Xiangcheng told me about what happened the day before. "Until today, my interest in China has not diminished. People often ask me, 'What do you want to take pictures of?' I always feel a bit regretful. There are so many things to take pictures of, why ask others? I hope to take pictures of things that don't seem like 'events'."
"Photographers need to maintain curiosity. The photographer and the object being photographed need to establish a basic trust, and the photos taken will convey the emotions of the subject, so that the photo can 'speak' on its own." Liu Xiangcheng said that in today's highly globalized ecology, China's diversity and even complexity should be reflected, "I think the world will welcome this."