French photographer Marc Lubb plays a role in the history of Chinese documentary photography comparable to that of I.M. Pei in the field of modern architectural design. Although he is different from Pei, who was born in China, Pei is of Chinese descent, while Marc is a native French. At that time, China faced hostility from all sides and had to close itself off due to security concerns.
However, Marc Lueb is not limited by national borders, and his art transcends the limitations of countries. As a "spectator" called "great" by the Chinese, he left a deep mark on the history of Chinese photography, documenting the new look of New China from the 50s to the 70s. He spends most of his time publishing these works in magazines to earn money to continue shooting.
This was also in line with China's needs at the time: to engage with the international community and let the world know that China is peaceful and harmless. However, there is one ** that is particularly special in that not only was it not published, but it was not even exhibited until the fifty-third year after the shooting. Because it was filmed at a state banquet in violation of the ban.
This is what makes Mark Lueb special as the first Western photographer to enter China. In 1957, before the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and France, Marc could not wait to come to China. At that time, China had just won the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, but it was caught in the whirlpool of war caused by the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea.
The US-led countries have trumpeted the so-called "China threat theory," but they have been silent about the US military stationed in South Korea stirring up peace on the Korean Peninsula. Under such circumstances, every international friend who has goodwill towards China is the object of our efforts. However, at the time, it was so difficult to find someone who was willing to speak up for us and who had no political position.
Therefore, in those days, although China's doors were still closed for security reasons, a small window was quietly opened to those who would not arbitrarily smear the image of our country because of national problems. Only when these Westerners, who have experienced Chinese culture firsthand and understand our principles of peaceful coexistence, speak out in the international arena will our international image not be easily tarnished in the minds of foreign people.
Mark seized the opportunity and embarked on a journey to become world-famous as a "spectator of China". He was born in Lyon, France, and his father gave him a Kodak camera when he was 14 years old, and from that moment on, the young Mark became inseparable from photography. During World War II, Mark joined the French anti-fascist partisans.
After the war, he started out as an engineer, but during a trip to New York in 1951, he saw some photographs at the New York Museum, which deeply touched his heart and drove him to give up his stable job as an engineer and become a freelance photographer.
In 1953, he published his first **, titled "The Painter of the Eiffel Tower", with which he entered the then highly regarded Magnum** society. Mark's ** is characterized by rigorous compositional aesthetics, with contrasts, foils, and similarities between front and back, left and right, which makes him unique and has a strong documentary style.
Among his proud works, a group of ** called "Anti-War Demonstrations in Washington" is very touching. In the United States in 1967, anti-war sentiment was at its peak, with pacifists holding flowers in their hands and tenderly eyeing soldiers with bayonets.
Mark's work is unique in that although his style was not new to the West at the time, he possessed excellent line-catching ability and stability as a former engineer. In terms of subject matter, unlike traditional documentary photography, which favors major events, Mark has never neglected the lives of ordinary people and the cute side of prominent people in his photographic works, in addition to presenting them objectively.
In 1957, Mark became the first Western photographer to be allowed to enter China to take freelance photography, an event that catapulted him to fame. In the United States in 1967, anti-war sentiment was at its peak, with pacifists holding flowers in their hands and tenderly eyeing soldiers with bayonets.
In this photo, soft flowers and cold bayonets blur through the focal length, allowing the viewer to clearly see the conflict between peace and blades, which greatly echoes the growing anti-war sentiment at that time. In 1955, during his journey from Paris to Calcutta, Mark made a friend of ***, long before he was granted a visa to enter the Red China.
In 1957, ** was introduced by an intermediary to go to China for Mark. Since then, Mark has embarked on a more than 50-year journey around China, documenting many things that Westerners have never seen. Despite not being the smartest one in the family, Mark, unlike his brothers, is shy and afraid to speak even in front of the opposite sex.
However, his father gave him a camera and advised him, "If you can't speak, use your eyes to observe." Since then, whenever he can't express his heart in clumsy words, Mark chooses to quietly record strange things with his camera. At the height of his career, he had almost no fixed residence, traveling, shooting, and traveling in many countries. China, however, is his favorite place.
In January 1957, as soon as the visa was issued, Mark immediately set off for New China, which was not yet open to the outside world. The train passed through Guangdong to Beijing, and he took his first photograph of the new China with pure curiosity and artistic sensibility. In the picture, a woman is leaning on the saddle of the car, looking relaxed and looking distant;Plainly dressed and elegant.
The photographer's perspective is inseparable from the work taken, and one can imagine the paradoxical beauty that Mark experienced at the time. Under his lens, the image is colorful, not only the image of an elegant giant in diplomatic occasions, but also the "scissorhands" that playfully gestures to the "V" that symbolizes victory.
However, this captured ** is actually *** when talking to the former French Minister of Education, he raised two fingers and said: "I learned two things in France, one is Marxism and the other is Leninism."
In addition, Mark also recorded the "not so serious" scene of *** eating watermelon with a small toothpick at the banquet welcoming the delegation of the Polish People's Republic, as well as *** rare smile, etc. The lovely side of the great man recorded by these shots has become one of the important evidences of the great changes in the history of New China.
In January 1957, Mark arrived in China and quickly traveled to Beijing, the capital of the country that was close to his heart. It was the cold season, and it was also the Chinese New Year, and the whole Beijing was a lively and festive scene.
Mark toured the hutongs and courtyard houses in Beijing, and also performed a performance that shocked him very much at the temple fair - "Chest Broken Stone"!He strolled through the Forbidden City and into the magnificent palace that he was allowed to enter, covered with snow. The light of Chinese culture shone between the red walls and tiles, stirring up the ripples in Mark's heart like a swallow sweeping across the lake.
In April 1957, he was invited to attend a banquet hosted by China to welcome the delegation of the Polish People's Republic. At this feast, Mark became the only foreign photographer. ** and *** were present at the feast, and the silver cutlery sparkled.
There were only 600 people at the banquet, except for the Polish delegation, and he was the only foreign photographer - all this made Mark feel extremely honored. Before the shooting, however, he received an injunction: he was not allowed to take a frontal portrait of the helmsman who had conquered China for many years. Before the opening, Mark naturally nodded in agreement, and did not intend to violate this ban and provoke the new China that had just embraced him.
However, there is also an annoying problem for photographers who are adept at capturing: once you see a scene worth shooting, you can't help but want to record it.
At the banquet, his camera did capture some of the *** sides of his personal style**, such as the scene of the toast to the wife of the Polish Prime Minister, but after printing, he found that there was only one picture on the side of the great man, and the lady only showed one hand.
After photographing the front of ***, Mark realized that he had violated the ban, so he did not release this **, but only kept it for his personal collection. It wasn't until 2010 that Mark came to China again and held a solo photography exhibition in Shanghai. At this time, the "ban on photos" was lifted by him and made it public.
At that time, he was 83 years old, and in an interview with reporters, he said: "I'm just a person walking with a small camera in hand, and those ** are just some trivial details." ”。Epilogue. During Mark's trip to China, many interesting things also happened. In 1994, Marc wandered around Shanghai with Chinese photographer Xiao Quan, wanting to photograph some of Shanghai's daily life.
Mark saw an old lady holding tongs to put briquettes in the stove to make a fire, and as soon as he raised the camera, he was discovered, and the old lady chased after him with **tongs!When Mark was in trouble and couldn't get out of it, he had an idea and took out *** "scissorhands" - a trick that was tried and tested.
But Xiao Quan regretted it, when the old lady ran after Mark, he only cared about protecting Mark, missed the opportunity to record that vivid scene, and never had the opportunity again.