Mr. Chua Soo Bin was born in 1932 in Singapore. He is a noted photographer and a Singapore Cultural Medallion recipient. In the 1980s and 1990s, he photographed the “Legends” series of Zhu Qizhan, Liu Haisu, Huang Chun-pi, Chao Shao’ang, Chen Wen Hsi, C. C. Wang, Li Keran, Ye Qianyu, Wu Zuoren, Lu Yanshao, Xie Zhiliu, Li Xiongcai, Tang Yun, and Guan Shanyue, recording lively flashes of these fourteen legendary Chinese artists during their later years. The series was published as a catalog in Singapore, and beginning in the 1990s, the pictures toured Singapore and mainland China. “Legends: Soo Bin’s Portraits of Chinese Ink Masters” is now coming to Fujian, Chua’s ancestral home, and visitors will be able to catch a glimpse of these well-known artists and see their lives as they once were.
In Chua’s pictures, Ye Qianyu studies the movements of dancers dressed as apsaras; Liu Haisu sports a floral shirt while painting a figure model; C. C. Wang wears a long Chinese tunic to a Picasso exhibition at the MoMA; Li Xiongcai waters his flowers; Li Keran practices tai chi; Zhu Qizhan listens to Suzhou storytelling and enjoys his plants in the morning; Tang Yun seemed to best know how to live and he liked drinking wine and tea and raising grasshoppers. These images from the everyday offer an unvarnished view of the lives of these Chinese ink masters. Chua began taking these portraits in 1984, when he traveled to China on a commercial project for Singapore Airlines. He had always loved art, so he went to visit painters in what little free time he had. As time passed, Chua realized that masters like Qi Baishi had never had professional photographs taken, which inspired him to take portraits of Chinese painters. Coincidentally, Liu Haisu was presenting an exhibition in Singapore, and after Chua told him about the idea, Liu supported him, and recommended the Chinese title for the series, Liuzhen, which literally means “the truth that remains.”
In the four years from 1985 to 1988, Chua Soo Bin took nine trips to mainland China, four trips to Hong Kong, two trips to Taiwan, and two trips to New York, shooting a total of 200 rolls of 36-exposure film. In his "Legends"series, he used ASA400 film and a fast shutter speed to improve the film’s sensitivity and produce a coarse granular effect. He turned off the flash and took pictures using only natural light. To achieve a better effect in the final image, Chua Soo Bin also used darkroom techniques. When he photographed Lu Yanshao, Chua recalled, “I was prepared to take pictures. We started with a picture of him sitting in front of a white piece of paper and thinking. When he was finished, I took a picture of the piece alone, then I combined the two in the darkroom.” After the series was finished, Chua began working more with contemporary art. In the early 1990s, he opened Soobin Art Gallery in Singapore, and his role shifted from a photographer to a curator and collector who did his utmost to promote Chinese contemporary art.
Thirty-six years later, all fourteen of these masters have passed away, making the series that Chua carefully assembled even more precious. He has certainly been a witness to history. These 84 images are more than an archive; they annotate the paintings of these great artists. The exhibition follows the artists back to daily life in the studios that they once inhabited, showing the dynamism of their working methods or the casual moments of contentment in their lives. The coarseness of the silver salt granules seems to echo the texture of the artists’ brushwork, recording their paintings and personalities using traditional black and white film photography. This series is a homage to the dignity of history and culture. These images commemorate an era and offer a portrait or profile of its spirit; the calm and uniqueness of these artists’ lives are vividly and enduringly presented in these photographs.
By Xiao Ruiyun
