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Zhou Ming's current exhibition in the Haishangshan Art Centre is the third episode in his "Under the Welkin of Shanghai" photography series.
Like the first two episodes, it is in black and white and also depicts scenes close to the photographer's daily life.
The title "Undisguised" gives some indication of the show's character. Zhou's focus is not on the glamour and grandeur of the city. Instead, the city stands stark and revealed in his lens.
The gates of deserted factories, empty buildings, shabby houses, destroyed statues ... Zhou could once have been accused of "viciously picturing the dark side and uglifying the city" in a less tolerant social environment.
The third of the exhibits shows a grand square, surrounded by a colonnade, in the middle of which stands a broken sculpture of two Greek-goddess-like figures. The sculpture is not of marble but is an empty mould.
A headless goddess is posed, exposing a terrible, torn and empty interior. The structure of the picture is coldly balanced. The photographer has executed the work with a detachment that is almost cruel.
The dramatic scene, so unreal, was taken in Jiading. A few years ago, a large investment was made to build a "Global Entertainment Park". Pictured is the relic of the failed project.
Most of the other works are about downtown Shanghai, many of which have the names of roads on them. Factories moved out of town, leaving behind a rusty gate pasted with illegal advertisements for STD clinics.
Old buildings, in which the city now takes great pride, became shabby because of over-use by too many occupants.
A few of the works have slogans. On a bright wall in front of an old apartment building is written: "No piss". Another apartment building is pictured with many large-size slogans protesting against a real estate developer.
"I don't want my pictures to have single theme or focus," said the 43-year photographer. "I wish people to find new things every time they view my work." For that reason, he took them using 120mm film, which enables larger prints with greater clarity.
Zhou's major in college was Chinese language and literature and he worked for many years as a Chinese teacher in universities.
It was not until the early 1990s that he started to seek to find self-expression through the camera. As a realist photographer, he is firmly against contrived shots. The drama in his works is unshakably real.
February 22-March 5
Haishangshan Art Centre
618 Wuzhong Lu
Tel: 6406-4626
(Shanghai Star February 27, 2003)
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