Mapping China: Visual Arts - Photography

The Pearl River Delta Region and Guangdong have a somewhat long tradition in photography. The story of photography in the Pearl River Delta Region can be traced back to the mid nineteenth century. In 1947, the Photographic Society of Guangdong was founded by Cai Junsan and YI Zijiang.

In 1981, An Ge (Peng Zhenge), a photographer working for Xinhua News Agency founded RenRen photography Salon in Guangzhou. The magazine Modern Photography was founded in Shenzhen in 1984. Four years later, another magazine called Photography was also founded in Shenzhen.  During the 1980s, the “Northern River Alliance” in Shanghai was one of the most important photography groups in the country. Photographers in the ‘alliance’ included Jin Hongjian, Zhang Jiwen, You Zehong, Zhang Shaoping and Mao Yiqing.

In the late 1990s, performance and conceptual photography began to make its imprint on the cultural scene. Artists such as Zhuang Huan, Ma Liuming and Cang Xin, started to experiment with videos and installations. In 1999, a Xu Zhen, Yang Zhenzhong and Alexander Brandt organized an exhibition in the Shanghai Plaza called “Art for Sale” attracting more than thirty artists. In Beijing the establishment in 1993 of the East Village, saw many photographers and artists used photography as an adjunct to experimental performance art and conceptual art. In 1994, the painter and photographer Rong Rong co-founded the first Chinese conceptual art photography magazine, New Photo. In recent years, many more galleries specializing in photography have been founded such as Art Beijing.