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PHOTOGRAPHING CHINA’S GREAT WALL
Photographing monuments and archaeological sites brings its own challenges. China’s Great Wall is 1000 times longer than any monument built and continues to defy comprehensive mapping. http://english.china.com/zh_cn/tourism/news/11020847/20070510/14088039.html
Though its construction was not in vain, it is a story told in tears and its countless workers’ lonely letters-preserved by the dry climate-testify to their sacrifice. Their suffering gave rise to the legend of Meng Chiang-nu, who tried to bring warm clothing to her husband toiling in the winter cold on the Wall. Her efforts led from the Tibetan Plateau to the Yellow Sea. When at last her search is ended by news of his death, her grief is so great that her tears breach the wall. At a temple at Shanhaiguan pilgrims still pay homage to her tragic loyalty. Photographs help memorise those who built the Wall. And 10 million people visit the Great Wall every year.
Rephotographing the Wall anew based on earlier photographs has been undertaken by William Lindesay and some of the project is described, with an accompanying slide show at http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/17/travel/trmelvin.php . The results are illuminating. Shanhaguian circa 1920 depicts in now nostalgic sepia tones two military officers on a crumbling section of the wall. http://www.iht.com/slideshows/2007/01/17/travel/web.0118trmelvin.php?index=6 Its revisitation is, unsurprisingly, without nostalgia and it’s not only because it’s in color, but because it now shows two civilians ambling down the slope of a reconstructed wall. Cheng Dalin’s lonely endeavors in photographing the Wall have led to important discoveries.
There are various approaches to the photography of monuments. The challenge is to provide a new perspective. Monuments such as Machu Piccu were places for communing with spiritual or cosmic forces. If so they can be photographed accordingly, devoid of human figures. But egotism triumphs in many monuments, such as those at Abu Simbel’s statues of Ramses the Great (this column features my articles on both sites). Here including human figures usefully emphasises the structures monumental scale. The more accessible parts of the Great Wall swarms with visitors and so if you cannot beat them, join them. This was my attitude on my visit during the busy May holiday. There is still scope for innovation though. Pictures which cordon-off part of the frame with actors dissociated from the main action have a venerably tradition: notable examples are the great Spanish portraitist Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas and the pioneering photographer Alfred Steiglitz in his The Steerage.. My effort
captures a family sharing their new pics with a devotion that emotionally distances them from those trundling nearby. Indeed a festive spirit prevailed and the Wall’s forlorn past is forgotten by portrait takers celebrating their relationships.
Actually, I saw little photography of the Wall which did not relegate it to a backdrop for such portraits.
Still the Wall endures, oblivious. Like other monuments, it’s surely going to outlast us all, after all. People have until July 6 to vote for the world’s greatest monument at www.new7wonders.com
Mark Berthold copyright 2007
Though its construction was not in vain, it is a story told in tears and its countless workers’ lonely letters-preserved by the dry climate-testify to their sacrifice. Their suffering gave rise to the legend of Meng Chiang-nu, who tried to bring warm clothing to her husband toiling in the winter cold on the Wall. Her efforts led from the Tibetan Plateau to the Yellow Sea. When at last her search is ended by news of his death, her grief is so great that her tears breach the wall. At a temple at Shanhaiguan pilgrims still pay homage to her tragic loyalty. Photographs help memorise those who built the Wall. And 10 million people visit the Great Wall every year.
Rephotographing the Wall anew based on earlier photographs has been undertaken by William Lindesay and some of the project is described, with an accompanying slide show at http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/01/17/travel/trmelvin.php . The results are illuminating. Shanhaguian circa 1920 depicts in now nostalgic sepia tones two military officers on a crumbling section of the wall. http://www.iht.com/slideshows/2007/01/17/travel/web.0118trmelvin.php?index=6 Its revisitation is, unsurprisingly, without nostalgia and it’s not only because it’s in color, but because it now shows two civilians ambling down the slope of a reconstructed wall. Cheng Dalin’s lonely endeavors in photographing the Wall have led to important discoveries.
There are various approaches to the photography of monuments. The challenge is to provide a new perspective. Monuments such as Machu Piccu were places for communing with spiritual or cosmic forces. If so they can be photographed accordingly, devoid of human figures. But egotism triumphs in many monuments, such as those at Abu Simbel’s statues of Ramses the Great (this column features my articles on both sites). Here including human figures usefully emphasises the structures monumental scale. The more accessible parts of the Great Wall swarms with visitors and so if you cannot beat them, join them. This was my attitude on my visit during the busy May holiday. There is still scope for innovation though. Pictures which cordon-off part of the frame with actors dissociated from the main action have a venerably tradition: notable examples are the great Spanish portraitist Diego Velasquez’s Las Meninas and the pioneering photographer Alfred Steiglitz in his The Steerage.. My effort
captures a family sharing their new pics with a devotion that emotionally distances them from those trundling nearby. Indeed a festive spirit prevailed and the Wall’s forlorn past is forgotten by portrait takers celebrating their relationships.
Actually, I saw little photography of the Wall which did not relegate it to a backdrop for such portraits.
Still the Wall endures, oblivious. Like other monuments, it’s surely going to outlast us all, after all. People have until July 6 to vote for the world’s greatest monument at www.new7wonders.com
Mark Berthold copyright 2007
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