Infinite of Photography
Initially, photography was invented as the birth and application of a technology, by means of tangible implements like camera, silver plate and glass pane…so as to display visible matters and record the real images of human, nature and the world. Afterwards, those thoughtful artists infused their ideas into photographic works, to convey artistic conception through tangible implements in a virtual way. Hence, the supreme state for photography should start from intangibility. It leaves your mind express freely in a twinkling, disengaged, unshackled and traceless.
In the field of photography, those photographers with fettered mind are merely unconscious imitators. Among photographers nowadays, such imitators can be spotted at the worldwide tourist attractions everyday. Arriving at the famous symbolic scenic spot and standing on the top of the rock, they move their steps to and fro in order to find the “Photograph Here” sign. With the preconceived label of “Grand Canyon” and concealed connotation in mind, the only contribution they do is standing in the “right” position and pressing the shutter. Their consciousness has been occupied by predictable matters, thus, the possibility to observe the unpredictable world is blocked.
For Mr. Jiang Ning, his way of photography differs, and it is characterized by “Looking up to learn the changes of sun, moon and stars in the sky, and looking down to examine the laws of both highness and lowliness on the earth; surveying the colored hair and feathers of animals and birds, and finding the profit in the use of mountains, rivers and soil; abstracting the symbolic images from the man near at hand, and from all things in the universe at a distance”. Beyond the bondage of time and space, it is a unique and natural way to express respect to the heaven and earth.
In Mr. Jiang Ning’s works, you can appreciate from the vigorousness of the leylines of the Grand Canyon to the flowing liveliness of Yellowstone National Park, from the special qualities the universe endowed to New York and Salt Lake City to the natural presence of the Creator. His works inclusively and vividly deliver his artistic conceptions of originating from the earth, loading in the world, changing in the universe, and keeping harmonious in the nature. Between black and white, among light and shadow, at the extreme moment, the whole nature is dissolved in Tao. Inveterately influenced by the spirit of Taoism, Mr. Jiang Ning’s unique way to express images across regional culture is admiring. It makes me cannot but immerse in his changing and concluding infinite space and realm.
President of China Photographic Publishing House