An organism is reborn from DNA translating genetic information into new proteins. This translation process is also occurring in the creative practices of emerging Chinese artists, who are departing from the basic medium of photography and constantly pushing boundaries. In 2019, the Three Shadows Photography Award received 534 submissions, and the works of 20 artists were selected for the Eleventh Three Shadows Photography Award Exhibition. These artists are not limited by conventional ways of capturing images, they present lively and diverse visual landscapes.
For example, Lu Shan uses ready-mades from the internet to make collages, producing animations and pictures that reconstruct a world between the real and the virtual. The work focuses on understandings of the world in different cultural traditions and religions, as well as the connections between scientific knowledge and today’s society and culture. Tang Xianying’s Parallel World cleverly uses large blocks of color and abstract or figurative structures, juxtaposing images that are not necessarily related and blending them with a subtle voice-over. From 2015 to 2019, Wang Yingying made several trips to the place of her birth. Through the juxtaposition of texts, graffiti, videos, and pictures, she re-examines and considers her family’s issues in the context of their times, recognizing her own identity and healing her own emotional scars. In In Order To See The Painting Of The Sky - Icarus In The Dream, Chen Jiangyu synthesizes 3D renderings and images to “re-interpret and re-create” the grander world of modern social structures and ideologies. It is also worth mentioning that, in looking over all of this year’s submissions, there were a considerable number of participants who came from non-artist backgrounds. At a time when “everyone is a photographer”, we are delighted at this immense diversity. With differing methods and perspectives, they have used photography to explore themselves and the connections between exterior and interior worlds.