GraemeNicol
huang shan
Picturesque “sea of cloud" landscape photos from Huang Shan. No subtle humour, no subversive undercurrents in my choice of framing or subject matter, no little incongruous detail which you might reflect on later and find ambiguity in. Just scenery. Sequenced in the right context I hope can perhaps throw photos like these into a larger exploration of the Chinese landscape and people, as a kind of visual palate cleanser… much in the way climbing up a mountain to feel all that space and breath all that fresh subtropical air was a cleansing experience for me after living in Beijing. Huang Shan wasn’t a complete escape from modernity though. Pockets of urban China’s chaotic brashness had been transplanted into this serene environment via tourism infrastructure, and via the tourists themselves; the intrusive tour guide megaphones, the “visual pollution" of bright yellow plastic rain ponchos (ok, I was wearing a bright red waterproof jacket which was equally bad…). For a while, I tried rather unsuccessfully to compose photographs which would hint at this conflict zone between the natural serenity of the mountain and that transplanted urbanity, but simply being in that zone threatened to ruin the experience I had come in search of. I much prefer Chinese urbanity actually IN urban China. The sheer human energy of a crowded market, or perhaps the awe of speeding through the Shanghai skyline at night, for example, might in their own way be compared to standing watching the clouds from the summit of Huang Shan…
Huang Shan, Mamiya 6, June 2013
huang shan
Picturesque “sea of cloud" landscape photos from Huang Shan. No subtle humour, no subversive undercurrents in my choice of framing or subject matter, no little incongruous detail which you might reflect on later and find ambiguity in. Just scenery. Sequenced in the right context I hope can perhaps throw photos like these into a larger exploration of the Chinese landscape and people, as a kind of visual palate cleanser… much in the way climbing up a mountain to feel all that space and breath all that fresh subtropical air was a cleansing experience for me after living in Beijing. Huang Shan wasn’t a complete escape from modernity though. Pockets of urban China’s chaotic brashness had been transplanted into this serene environment via tourism infrastructure, and via the tourists themselves; the intrusive tour guide megaphones, the “visual pollution" of bright yellow plastic rain ponchos (ok, I was wearing a bright red waterproof jacket which was equally bad…). For a while, I tried rather unsuccessfully to compose photographs which would hint at this conflict zone between the natural serenity of the mountain and that transplanted urbanity, but simply being in that zone threatened to ruin the experience I had come in search of. I much prefer Chinese urbanity actually IN urban China. The sheer human energy of a crowded market, or perhaps the awe of speeding through the Shanghai skyline at night, for example, might in their own way be compared to standing watching the clouds from the summit of Huang Shan…
Huang Shan, Mamiya 6, June 2013