As there was for all intents and purposes no fine-
arts expression of photography in the People’s
Republic, the Cultural Revolution, occurring bet-
ween 1966 and 1976, had little impact on the field.
Although intellectuals, artists, and other cultural
elites were persecuted, not allowed to practice
their disciplines, interned, and even killed, greatly
affecting the study and practice of art, music, and
literature, the impact on photography was indirect,
with the result being that as reforms were put into
place in the late 1970s and into the 1980s, photo-
graphy for the first time was taken seriously as an
artistic medium, following the models of the West.
Photographers for the first time could adapt an
identity as creative individuals and look at their
output as expressive of their individual personal-
ities. Landscape photography, nature studies, ex-
pressive portraiture, and even social and veiled
political commentary began to be practiced. Doc-
umentary photography, however, still dominated.
Several well-known Western photographers cre-
ated important bodies of work in China in the
second half of the century, notably Henri Cartier-
Bresson. His wide-ranging documentation was
published by Robert Delpire in 1955. Robert
Capa, Marc Riboud, and Rene ́Burri also under-
took important series.
Documentary Photography in the Late 1980s
In the late 1980’s, documentary photography
emerged to become pervasive in China. HAN Lei
and LIU Zheng (1969–) are two examples of photo-
graphers engaged in this type of photography.
They often took pictures of marginal people—
laborers and others of the lower classes who were
confronted with the dramatic change of their life-
style and social status due to China’s process of
Western modernization. These photographers tra-
veled in order to select their motifs, and they con-
tinued to document these motifs for a long period
of time. Liu Zheng’s seriesThe Chineseis consid-
ered a pioneering body of images in that they
depicted groups and individuals from all walks of
life in actual pursuits as opposed to staged, propa-
gandist depictions of Communist Party social pro-
grams. Liu Zheng has continued to produce
important bodies of work, including his series of
lush color tableaux,Four Beauties, which presents
the lives of four fabled historical women.
CHEN Changfen is an important landscape
photographer of this period. He began his career
as a professional photographer in 1959. He was
selected byTimemagazine as one of 10 eminent
photographers in the history of photography. He is
well known for his landscape photography of the
Great Wall, a motif that he has been fascinated
with and involved in since 1959. In his photo-
graphs, he successfully combines the aesthetics of
photography and ancient Chinese monuments.Contemporary Photography After the Mid-
1990s
After the mid 1990s, with the increasingly affluence
and globalization of the country, photography
became widespread in China. It also came to dom-
inate contemporary art practice in China, now
eagerly sought after by Western art aficionados.
Photography during this period, however, was
engaged in by artists who had training in visual
art, rather than photography, leading to an open
and experimental style. The availability of digital
photography was another vital factor that stimu-
lated the development of contemporary photogra-
phy. The domestic market for photography was
further sparked by the rapid ascendancy of Chinese
manufacturers of photographic equipment, espe-
cially digital cameras, in the 1990s.
QIU Zhijie (1969–) is one of the pioneers of
contemporary photography. In his early works, he
depicts middle class people’s lives in relation to
livelihood and lifestyle. Some photographers stu-
died photography abroad and also worked abroad.
The early works of XING Danwen (1967–) deal
with the Cultural Revolution in a reportage per-
spective. In her later works, she became interested
in China’s global issues on E-trash and urban
transformation. RONG Rong (1968–) lived and
studied photography in Japan in the mid 1990’s.
He was interested in documentary photography in
his early career. Later, he took self-portraits, some-
times with his wife, using ruined buildings and
sublime landscapes as his surroundings.
The rapid transformation of China in social,
political, cultural, and economic domains came to
the lens of these artists’ cameras during this period
of time. YANG Yong was interested in depicting
the city in its various facets. He preferred to take
snapshots for his motifs. HONG Hao (1965–) is
another Chinese artist looking to the West and
interested in set-up photography. In his works,
facsimiles of advertising photographs in which he
appears as a suave model selling Western luxuries
and lifestyles, Hong Ho creates scenes that signify
the dream-like world of the middle class in China.
A typical work isHello, Mr. Hongof 1998. HAI
Bo’s (1962–) photographs address the issues ofCHINA AND TAIWAN, PHOTOGRAPHY IN