Musing April 2013
Musing From China
Imagine you are seated around the table of a nice restaurant with 15 photographers. The wine and beer flows freely, and there is more food on the large lazy Susan in the center of the table than you can imagine finishing in one meal. The voices are loud and the conversation animated yet you don’t understand a word. Although it is Mandarin, a gesture and occasional word crosses the language barrier showing the conversation to be about photography and the Zone System. This was my experience every day for two weeks.
I taught a ten-day platinum printing workshop in Hang Zhou (south China) in collaboration with Alpa China, a photography company in Beijing. The workshop was hosted by Professor Zhang Yibin at Zhejiang Sci and Tech University, one of ten universities in this small city of 6.2 million people. (We drove past four universities, each with 10,000 to 15,000 students, on the ten-minute drive to our classroom each day.) Our darkroom and classroom were on the 10th floor of Building 18, home of the photography department. It is the first time I have ever worked in a darkroom on the top floor of a building rather than in the basement.
Arriving in Beijing at midnight, I was met by my colleagues from Alpa China: Ms. Liu Sumei, Mr. Chen Zhanbo and Mr. Wang Yue. They took me to the hotel, where I got a few hours sleep before we left on a two-hour flight the next morning to Hang Zhou. It took two days to prep for the class and on the evening of the second day we began the workshop with a group dinner. From there we were off and running.
Each morning, the Alpa China team and I were picked up and driven by a student assistant to the campus. It was disorienting to ride in an overcrowded car while a loud conversation took place in Chinese and the Beatles’ Abbey Road album played on the radio. I was astounded by the number of high rise buildings being built everywhere and equally surprised to see so much English on signs throughout the area. I can’t say I could have gotten around by myself but there was enough English to begin to recognize where I was and where I was going.
I didn’t know what to expect and I had few expectations when I agreed to teach the workshop for Alpa China. I have to say that these men were some of the most accomplished photographers I have worked with. All of them were experienced view camera and zone system photographers. Most worked with 8×10 cameras and several worked with 11×14 and 16×20. They grasped the concepts and practices very quickly and their thirst for knowledge was insatiable. We talked Zone System, platinum printing, digital negatives, and “contemporary” versus “traditional” photography from morning until well into the night.
My experience teaching in China for the first time was a wonderful one. The language barrier was very real and I worried that content and subtlety was lost in my inability to understand and speak. My two translators, Ms. Lui Sumei and Ms. Jiang Feiran, were with me constantly and managed to get me understood as much as was possible. I think both of them learned enough about platinum printing to teach the class themselves.
Here are a few of my first impressions of China:
– The food is fabulous. Southern Chinese food is served in small platters, and everyone takes a small sample. Fish, duck, chicken, seafood and pork were a part of every evening meal. The vegetables were steamed and the sauces were superb. The rice comes last and is an indication that the meal is over. My students were surprised that I could use chopsticks and after the first day they stopped ordering a knife and fork for me. I rarely asked what I was eating and I sampled everything. Once in a while something would be too spicy for me, and occasionally this invoked chuckles but there was wine or beer to cool my mouth. They were very eager to explain to me why certain foods were served this way or that.
– My students were from all over China. The workshop was a meeting of elite large format photographers in China. The photographers were very knowledgeable and search the internet for everything photographic. They have books in English and tirelessly work on the translation to find a new or better way of doing anything. They know what is happening in the world of photography. I was questioned about many people, processes, and ideas in the photographic world.
– Rules of the road are suggestions. Left turn, right turn and one-way signs are for the other drivers. Drivers in Hang Zhou are fearless. I love to drive but would not consider driving in Hang Zhou or Beijing. Having said this the super highways are beautiful, new and wonderfully maintained.
– China is serious about drinking and driving. Drive with one drink in your system and you lose your license for a year. Two suspensions and you wait a long time before you are allowed to retake driving lessons and retest for your license. Needless to say, there were several designated drivers at every meal.
I want to thank Mr. Qiu Shui Chang Tian of Alpa China for creating the opportunity for the workshop. Mr. Chen Zhanbo and Mr. Wang Yue from Alpa China made sure the workshop ran smoothly and all the supplies I asked for had been delivered. A big thanks goes to Ms. Liu Sumei (May) who was the first and primary contact to get this workshop rolling, who translated my workbooks for the students, who made sure I was where I needed to be when I needed to be there, and translated during my teaching and much of the mealtime conversations for me. Lastly, a big thank you to Mr. Zhang Yibin who hosted the workshop and made his class and darkroom space available to us.
Many thanks to all the students who took time from their busy schedules to be at the workshop. I had a great time and hope you did too!
All the best,
Tillman