State Perspective
- 1981-83 40 x 60 cm Limited Edition, Auflage: 15 Lambda Print auf Fuji Pro Paper
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| About the work: In 1981, eighty-one-year-old Wu Yinyan was commissioned to shoot “Inside the Great Hall of the People” for a gift wall calendar the Hall was preparing to print. The shoot was part of the Great Hall of the People’s “public image campaign,” and in all it took two months over a period of three years. Wu strived to depict the grandeur and stateliness of China’s bodies of higher government, however in these images of utmost grandeur and stateliness, the ceremonial aspects and nobility of the art of photography transpire. As an effective means of mass propaganda, the essence of these photographs changed once they were printed in a calendar. In a way, photography can be seen as the language of the ideology of the state apparatus: Once the masses have registered the “reflection,” they “call out” for an individual sense of belonging, security, honor and submission within the State. In “Inside,” this has to do with the atmosphere surrounding the object being photographed, but it is also the product of the Wu Yinyan’s sense of political duty and political sensitivity at having been granted the honor of being chosen to photograph the highest governmental spaces of his nation. Although these photos are the product of the collective unconsciousness of the time, the high quality of the photography work will become more appreciable because they truthfully reflect and exemplify the typical esthetic criteria of the era and meet the political criteria of mainstream ideology, and express these in an incisive and vivid manner. Looking at “Inside the People’s Congress” today, they stand as fine examples of the culmination and closure of social realism in Chinese photography. More importantly, “Inside the Great Hall of the People” raises new questions on authorship, purpose, approach, audience and esthetic criteria. by Cai Meng |
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