Author: Cranz, Galen

Publication Year: 1978

Media Type: Report

Summary:

Abstract:

Paper presented at the National Conference on Sociology of the Arts, William Paterson College of New Jersey, Wayne, New Jersey, April 20-22, 1979.

Sontag has recently characterized both Chinese photography and society as static, and the West, including its photography, as dynamic. This paper challenges that interpretation and proposes instead that the Chinese are interested in the ideal rather than the typical. The evidence for this competing interpretation --gathered during a month's field work as a tourist and architectural photographer in the People's Republic of China -- is based on observations of the Chinese uses of photography in different arenas: work, education, and personal use. Photographs are used to reinforce high work standards, glorify the revolutionary past, and idealize family and group life. The Chinese are misinterpreted as propogandistic because they show the most successful communes, the best housing, factories and schools. To them education is based on teaching by model, rather than the average. Americans attach great importance to the average, because an empiricist tradition, rather than a dialectic one, has shaped our intellectual style. Our interest in documentary photography reflects our concern with the typical, while the Chinese interest in perfect settings reflects their concern with the ideal. (Abstract from the article)

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: International