新闻摄影在中国：改变的十年(一)

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

    In 1995, He Longsheng, a Chinese literature graduate, came with a dream to Guangzhou, an economic engine house in China today, to work as an entry-level photographer with Nanfang (Southern) Daily. Young and ambitious as he was, he never expected that eight years later, he should become the director of Visual Department at Xin-Jing-Bao (New Beijing Daily), a new metropolitan newspaper launched by the Nanfang Newspaper Group in Beijing, to supervise 16 photographers, 4 picture editors, 10 art and graphic editors and 10 technicians in 2003. That year, He was just 33!

　

    In the eyes of some westerners, Chinese photographers are government employees working in ideological areas for propaganda purpose. But this is not the case now. When comparing the media environment in recent years with that in the early 1980s, Hu Shuli, editor of Cai-Jing (Fortune and Economy) magazine and the World Press Review’s 2003 International Editor of the Year[1], said: “Generally speaking, there are far more opportunities for the news media and journalists to play the role of watchdog than before. It is true that some officially recognized mainstream media have not fully played their role of supervision, but then there have emerged many more so–called ‘fringe’ media in China today. They are not party and government organs and thus not considered mainstream.”[2]　

　

Things have changed since the mid 1990’s, when the reform in China extended to the media business, which gave way to the launch of many more newspapers and magazines and finally changed the role of photojournalism in China.

　

　

    Spot news coverage in print media is the most significant example to show the change in China’s photojournalism. For many years, spot news photos were rarely seen in print media, since they were usually associated with such negative happenings as fire, traffic accident, airplane crash, etc., and were regarded as inappropriate to highlight in pictures. In 1992, an airplane crashed in Guilin, one of China’s most popular tourist attractions, killing all the passengers, many of whom being tourists from overseas. Mike Fiela, the then AFP Beijing bureau photographer, kept calling Xinhua News Agency for days to require if any photos on the spot were available. Finally, he gave up and said later in an interview: “I could not understand! The problem is not about a photo, it is about more than one hundred lives.” In fact, Xinhua Photo, the only news organization in China having a national-wide photographer network at that time, did cover the event, but did not release any images until the investigation showed the tragedy was an accident rather than an intentional sabotage.

　

    When the media environment started to change in China, spot news photos became more eye-catching on the pages and have played more and more important role in media. All newspapers, especially the metropolitan newspapers, offer fat cash to encourage tips for spot news information. Xin-Jing-Bao ran an advertisement offering payment for such tips up to 10,000 RMB (1,250 US dollar) on Nov. 11, 2003, the first day the paper was launched. Xu Zugen, director of the Photography Department of Xinhua News Agency, wrote in 2003 to the hundreds of photographers and picture editors working with him: as one of the global wire services, Xinhua’s photo reportage should cover every big spot event. With the support of five-line resources -- Xinhua photographers, Xinhua reporters, 3,000 stringers around the country to be recruited in three years, photo exchanges between agencies, and TV images, Xu believed the goal could be achieved. “No matter other media have it or not, Xinhua should have the story,” Xu said.

　

    Besides spot news, feature photos, illustrations, photo essays (as well as picture stories), which were never seen before 1995, have taken more and more spaces in the newspaper and magazine pages, since housing, fashion, car, furniture, traveling, health are becoming hot topics in the society. When serving as a judge for a national press photo competition, Wang Wenlan, director of photography at China Daily and a senior photojournalist in his early 50s, sighed: “You can see almost everything here now which you could never imagine a few years ago.”

　

    Using a larger picture in the front page to appeal to buyers’ visual attention at newsstands became a common trick used by the newspapers and magazines in China. Not just the spot news showed up on the front page, but also breaking international news. In fact, international news photos were never highlighted in front pages or covers in China’s print media until recent years. It made a history in China’s photojournalism in 2003 as two fringe local newspaper photographers, from Modern Express in Nanjing and Chinese Business Daily in Xi’an, were assigned to cover Iraqi crisis. More than ten fringe newspapers in China also dispatched photographers to cover the recent tsunami that hit a number of countries in Southeast and South Asia. An American photographer should expect to meet more and more Chinese counterparts at international hot spots in the near future.

 

    Documentary photography, started in the mid 1990s, is the most popular and vivid with fewer limitations in today’s China. Yang Yankang, who is now France’s VU photographer, documented the Catholic Church in the remote countryside, and put up a show at the 2003 VISA Photographic Festival. His documentation was run by the Newsweek and Paris Match. Zhou Hai’s documentation of workers in traditional industry was picked up by the New York Times on August 3, 2003. Yuan Dongping, photographer of Minority Pictorial who documented China’s mental patients, won 1993 POY in the NPPA competition. James Zeng-Huang, photographer for China Features / Sygma who documented family planning and children’s life in remote areas, projected his photo essays at the 2003 Arles Photographic Festival, France.

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