Chinese LF photographers

[tim atherton]

The issue of LF photography in China has come up in several different posts and contexts recently. The gist of things being there appears to be a (failry rapidly) growing interest in LF photography in China - from the number of domestc manufacturers of different sorts - who aren't just selling outside China, but to a growing domestic market, to Camera makers like Dick Phillips (and Canham I think) and others who are saying they are selling more cameras to China.

The reason I've brought it up is I recently bought a couple of LF things of ebay from Chinese photographers, but more so, I was also selling some things - camera, bellows, meter etc on ebay and I got lots of requests to sell to China. And these were all individual photographers. One guy shot 4x5, 8x10, 7x17 and 11x14 and had been building up an arsenal of nice Dagor and other such lenses. Others seemed to be following a similar track going by the couple of responses I got from them

Joerg Colbergs blog has links to the work of some photographers - but they are just a few of the more "contemporary" ones in terms of subject matter

http://www.jmcolberg.com/weblog/archives/cat_contemporary_chinese_photography.html

There seems to be evidence for quite a growing interest in Large Format photography in China. Does anyone else know what sort of things are going on? What other sort of work is being done etc?

[Eric Biggerstaff]

Tim,

I know Alan Ross has made several trips to China, twice on personal travel and 2 or 3 times as a guest speaker at a large photo festival. He says the interest in photography, in general, is VERY high in China and LF photography is very, very big. He showed me one picture he took while he was at one of the photo festivals and there must of been 100 LF photographers lined up along a lake photographing! He also told me that during these festivals it is not uncommon to have well over 100 shows going on during the festival ( it might be higher, but can't remember - I do recall that is was BIG number).

He told me the work is all over the place in terms of subject matter but he saw some that was outstanding.

[steve simmons]

Alan has done an article on this for an upcming issue of View Camera magazine.

steve simmons

[Lon Overacker]

Perhaps a simplistic and partial reasoning could be explained by numbers. Population of China is somewhere around 1.3-1.4 billion. And as China becomes more and more "westernized," with increase/booming internet access, McDonalds, US manufacturing, economic boom, etc. etc.... it would only make sense there could be an increase in LF interest, or photography for that matter. I'd venture to guess that there are huge increases in cell phones, GPS units, X-boxes, etc. as China's economic and social structures open up.

I've sold a handful of photographic items on eBay and always get requests from outside the US.
US population, what? almost 300 million... the rest of the world, 5 or 6 billion? I'd say there's a growing LF market in China, just from the numbers.

Simplistic, but certainly a factor to consider...

Lon

[Hugo_6476]

They are selling us cheap new disposables in Walmarts and buying old and rare durables like Dagors and Heliars from us from eBay. Transfer of wealth. Very interesting. Many LF photographers in China were educated in European and US school and went back for better opportunities. LF was non exist in China just a few years ago. Now they read this forum and they even have their own forum like this one in Chinese. Go to www.forum.xitek.com if you are interested and can read Chinese. Internet spreads information. They are learning as hard as we do here. They share their stuff on the site and sometimes organize photo trips in groups. Just like we do here. Bunch of people with no "real life".

[Jonathan Brewer]

www.forum.xitek.com is what I pasted in my browser, and it came back w/nothing, are there other Chinese forums?

[Lei Meng]

http://www.xitek.com/forum/index.php

http://paowang.com/photo/

[Frank Petronio]

I have a couple of Chinese advanced amateur/pro photog magazines from my trip. Lots of pretty, well done landscapes and equipment fethishes - sound familar?

[Jonathan Brewer]

Anything coming up in the future for exchange of images and discussion on forums, and websites, between the rest of us and the Chinese folks based in China? Is there anything already up along these lines?

[Hugo_6476]

It's amazing how fast they learn. They try PMK and discuss Michael's AZO printing. Right now, they are trying to do things Ansel Adams' way like most of us, I wouldn't be surprised to see some of them develop their own Chinese styles in future. Something following their long tradition of ink paintings. Less rather than more, soft rather than sharp, dreamy rather than realistic.

China is an exciting place for LF photographers. Many mountains and rivers have not been recorded by 8x10 negatives before. You have the most modern cities along the coast and mountain villages still sleepy in history.

Exchange of images and discussion on forum will be difficult. Some of them can read English and most of us here don't read Chinese. But if you post on their forum, you will probably get some answers. One interesting area is workshop. Most of them are beginners who are eager to learn and usually willing to pay for good learning experience. LF is still a hand-on thing, not very effective to learn from internet. Most brave souls here with experience should entertain the idea of travelling and teaching there for a few months. It might be the photo trip of your life.

Just my 2 cents.